Day off at Thousand Island Lake

There is no flat land around the lake. You have to hike up the hill to be 200 feet away from the water or trail. That's a chore, especially after a long day of hiking. It's not much better when you are all puffed up and stiff in the morning. Then you dig a hole 8 inches deep, and that'll take whatever the breath remaining after the climb. If you don't have an appropriate tool, you'll have to improvise with the sharpest stone you can find. Squatting down is no easy proposition either. Your body aches from hiking and holding in that position for however long it takes to empty the cargo can be a murder. Then you hold on to tree branches do the deed and bury the deposit. Getting back up is impossible unless there are tree branches that you can grab on. Pooping in a bucket will feel like a luxury when you are done with the whole schtick of pooping in the hole on the ground.

I don't know why I'm pooping so much when my diet is devoid of any fiber. It consists of oatmeal, candy bars, instant ramen and spam. The strain of walking all day with 30-pound backpack must've been stimulating my bowel.

So, I'm all pooped and rested this morning. I'm fairly clean too: I managed to wash my head and limbs yesterday when I got to Thousand Island Lake. No mosquito problem either. It's been windy since 9AM and all mosquitos were swept away. I hope it remains breezy for the rest of the day. It's my day of rest. I'll explore around the lake in the afternoon and perhaps take a dip in the lake. The water here doesn't feel too cold, perhaps because the lake is shallow.

Thousand Island Lake

After two 11000 feet pass, I'm reconsidering doing JMT. The second one in particular took a toll on me even though it was only half of the elevation gain of the first one. The second one was as emotionally demoralizing as the first one was physically exhausting. It might have been alright if I continued to the top without stopping. Thinking I was almost there, I stopped for a lunch break. Then the pass went on and on. It was like Crags Castle: when you think you are there, another hill appears.

In reality, the first pass were only 1000 feet tall, and the second one 500 feet. But they rose over 2 and 1 mile, respectively, making it a bit of challenge, especially if you are demoralized and carrying 30 lbs backpack.

I didn't sleep well the night before either, despite hiking 10.5 miles. My insomnia must be returning now that the CFS is ebbing. Sleeping well was a silver lining for 13 years and now it's time to say goodbye to it, I guess. I was in a good shape in the morning despite the bad sleep. I flew down to JMT junction from Ediza Lake in no time and started my climb up the first pass. The first pass went by without much drama and I was looking down at the spectacular Garnet Lake.

Garnet Lake and Thousand Island Lake are not exactly above the tree line. But, at about 10000 feet, they should qualify as alpine lakes. They certainly has clear blue water that comes from melt snow. Thousand Island Lake had more islands and peninsulas, but Garnet Lake has deeper blue water. It's more sparking. I'd choose to camp at Garnet Lake instead the next time. Perhaps when I do the JMT.

After the ordeal of the second pass was Ruby Lake, a smaller one with glaciers plunging into it's deep emerald water. Another lake I would've loved to camp at but was not allowed to. It is in the shade of the cliffs; it may be a little cold to camp there.

The Emerald was was anything but. I it didn't have that deep emerald color of Ruby Lake. Maybe because it was sunnier there, but Ruby Lake with it's glaciers looked about ten times better.

Then I was at Thousand Island Lake at last. Maybe I expected a lot, with everybody taking about it and all. But its water, dotted with islands was not as sparking. It felt more stagnant. Maybe Garnet Lake is the same around the shores where camping was allowed. I wouldn't know since I didn't camp there. But after seeing Garnet Lake from 500 feet above, Thousand Island Lake wasn't as satisfying. I'm spoiled by now after seeing so many pristine lakes, I guess.

I walked about half a mile and set up my tent in a peninsula. It seemed like the best spot in the whole lake, but nobody was on it. You need to bushwhack a bit to get to it and maybe that is the reason why. Three aren't too many campers here either.

Ediza Lake

PCT at Agnew Meadows was practically a traffic jam with steady stream of people poured out of High Trail. It must be the peak season in this section of the PCT. It's already June and people who started in April-May were arriving there. Good thing that there isn't much snow in the Sierras this year. It would've been a tough hike through the high Sierra in June if the snow level was normal. Still, there was enough snow to cover some of the trail when I hiked to Big Pine Lakes on May 21.

The trail today followed Shadow Creek pretty much all the way. After trekking for an hour, I met a fellow slow hiker who has been on PCT for 5 months. He must have left Mexican end of the trail in January. He was not going to get to Washington before the winter obviously, but he was not concerned. It was about experiencing the trail, not getting to the end of PCT, for him. He was probably who I will be if I ever do PCT.

Shadow Creek was more like a river than a creek. Impressive volume of water roared down the canyon and then widened into gently flow at places. It flows from Shadow Lake, which in turn gets it's fill from Iceberg Lake via Ediza Lake. When the trail veered from the creek and started to climb up, it became a waterfall gushing out of the canyon. I went off the trail, went down to the river and hadmy lunch there.

I'd have loved to camp by Shadow Lake. Its shallow, crystal-clear coves with sandy bottom would've been great for dipping too. But the destination was Ediza Lake, so I had to move on. No camping is allowed by Shadow Lake in any case. They must've wanted to keep pristine lakes pristine. Ediza Lake has clear water too, but debris and moss were floating around the edges where camping was allowed. The area around the outlet was clean and easily accessible, but no camping was allowed there. The inlet was supposed to be nice, but I had to hike further to get there. I was tired, so I pitched the tent by the easily accessible part of the lake. In all, it was about 10-mile day.

Minaret Point: The Beginning of Thousand Island Lake Loop

The lakes along Thousand Island Lake Loop, supposedly crown jewels of JMT was the proving ground for my backpacking gear. My backpack now weighs 30 pounds after adding food, water and bear canister. Certainly not an ultra-light pack. But I figured you just need to slow down by 5 to 10 percent for each additional 10 pounds. The physics of p=fv says so: for the constant power, you should slow down proportionally to the increase in weight. assuming a person weighs 100 to 200 lbs, the increase of 10 pounds is 5-10% of the total weight. Therefore, you should slow down by that amount.

If you are a type 2 hiker who gets a kick out of getting there fast, then the weight that you carry matters. I don't need to be there fast; I only need to get there for the novelty effect. Just hiking a few miles to get to a new place is enough to get my juice flow to suppress the exertion-hypersensitivity.

The road to Mammoth Lakes through South Lake Tahoe and Gardnerville was a familiar one. It was the same route that I took last year. I got to Mammoth Lakes Welcome Center at 3 PM and picked up the permit and a bear canister. I then plugged in the car and went over to Grocery Outlet a block away to buy a couple of bottles of water. They didn't have one liter water bottle, so I bought ginger ale and tonic water instead. I drank them instead of water throughout the next day.

The road from Minaret Point to Agnew Meadows was closed, the ranger at the Welcome Center told me. I had to start my hike from Minaret Point instead of driving down to the trail head at Agnew Meadows. It's downhill going out, which meant additional 3 miles of uphill coming back. After 10 miles on High Trail, that'll be a murder.

There was no point going up to Minaret Point early. There wouldn't be cell connection there and I'd be out of things to do. I spent the rest of the afternoon in Mammoth Lakes and surfed the internet. I then went up to Minaret Point, soaked in the view of Minarets, fixed instant ramen for supper and then went to bed.

Backpacking Plan

Things are moving fast. Original plan was to do the Electric Hobo season 2, the repeat of the car camping and hiking, and then get into backpacking next year. But now I got my backpacking gear and I'll be on the 4-day trip to Thousand Island Lake. And I'm already thinking about doing a thru-hike, as soon as next year.

Not all places are reachable by day-hike; backpack is sometimes necessary even for car campers. In fact, many "tasty" places require multi-day backpacking. To get to Reflection Canyon in Escalante, for example, requires overnight camping. 

For now though, getting there is the goal, not the backpacking itself. That means trips of a few days at the most to get to remote destination.  But I'm still planning out the gear as if I'm doing 2-person backpacking through JMT because I didn't want to get a new set of gears to do thru-hikes later on. That meant 65L pack and 2-person tent. The base weight came at 20 lbs. Add food and water, it'll be 30 lbs pack. It's not ultra-light by any means. But I'll have all the comfort in the world and I still can use it for JMT later.

So, new plan and new toys. Maybe backpacking will finally get me out of the remaining exertion hyper-sensitivity. Meanwhile, I'm still crashing after 4x1 block jogging. I get hit by the bus two hours after and get knocked out for a couple of hours. Then I get debilitated for the whole afternoon the next day. But the crashes only last hours, not days or weeks as it used to. It's an improvement. But I still have to plan so that I won't get debilitated when I have things to do. Which means jogging after 8PM so that, when the bus comes, I could just go to bed.

Kern River Loop

 There were lots of water in the river. The snow from the late storms must be melting and the river was raging, like it did in April of 2017 on our way to Death Valley. And yes, the river north of Lake Isabella was clearer. It is not Lake Tahoe-clear, but you could see through it for more than a few feet. The trail also sported several lovely sandy beaches. People's been camping there obviously -- there were charred remains of fire at several places. 5 miles in, camp, 5 miles out. Seems like a good practice for backpacking. Something I should do before attempting Rae Lakes Loop.

On the way to Johnsondale Bridge, where the Kern River Loop starts, was Brush Creek. It was only 1.7 miles long, so I decided to hike it first.  After the river loop, I may not have enough energy left for it. And I was right, I did 10 miles at 2 mph and I was pooped out. I would've missed it if I did the river loop first.

Brush Creek was just as I imagined: clear water cascading down granite rocks forming swimming holes here and there. I got to the end, skinny-dipped, dried up and came back down. It's a dopamine-inducing antidote to CFS if there ever was one.

Day off at Hannings Flat

I should've brought the fan. I left it out because it's bulky and I never used it the last season. But I could've used it today. The temperature went up to upper 80s and I sat in the shade all day long because tent was too warm. The breeze kicked up at 4 PM and it cooled off a bit. I crawled into tent, napped for about 15 minutes and then came back out to the shade to write.

Then again, I may not need it. I need a fan on my day off at the camp, but I've improved enough that I no longer need to take every other day off. I did 10 miles yesterday and I could've been back on the trail today. Except that I figured I'd take the day off and do photos and blogs. I would've been hiking if I knew it would've been too warm to stay at the camp. Even if I say at the camp, I can stay up all day long. Before, the fan was a necessity because I had to lie down in the tent.

So, my new goal, back to back hiking 2 days in a row, seems within reach. I think I'll give it a try the next 2 days. I'll do about 6 miles tomorrow on Bull's Run Creek and Salmon Falls. Then I'll go right back on trail the day after for Kern River Loop and Brush Creek for the total of 12 miles. If I survive that, then Rae Lake Loop backpacking for 40 miles over 5 days will be the next.

I may have to return to Sacramento in a week. I still need to get my backpack and REI is having sale starting next week. I'm hoping to pick up the new Osprey Atmos 65 at 20% off. If they have Big Agnes tents on sale, I may pick that one up as well and then return MSR Hubba Hubba NX2. MSR is a great tent, but its weight has been, well, weighing on me. It is 0.75 lbs heavier than Big Agnes. That's extra 3 quarter pounders that I'd be carrying. I'm already spending over 4 lbs on the backpack, I need to go light on everything else. 

It's almost full moon at the camp. The moon lit up the earth so bright, I could walk about without any lights.