Fourth of July and a welcome day off, the only real one in our month-long field camp. Sara and I decided to take our alpackas for a hike to the large backcountry lake, Thousand Island Lake. We opted for the more grueling and direct June Lake approach (3600ft cumulative vertical and 11 miles round trip) versus the easier and probably infested Pacific Crest Trail approach via Agnew Meadows on the Devils Postpile road. The hope was that the lake was just beyond a dayhike's reach for most and that with an early start we'd have time to explore the lake's many islands by packraft. With an early 7a start at the trailhead parking was a breeze and the first steep climb to Agnew Lake was all in the shade. This first-third of the hike was admittedly the strangest. We'd pass wilderness boundary signs to then walk along an ore-cart-style cable tramway and large dams and buildings for power generation. Both Agnew Lake and Gem Lake had offending dams and bathtub rings in what would otherwise be "wilderness."
The second steep climb brought us up the scree slope south of Agnew Lake and into the hanging valley of Spooky Meadows, briefly, before the trail continued the climb out of that too. We reached our first of three passes to overcome before reaching the lake. As I waited for Sara to catch up, I noticed progressively more mosquitoes on the hike, even as the sun continued to rise overhead. From here on the scenery got noticeably better and we finally had a backcountry feel to our surroundings- unnamed lakelets, meadows, stands of trees, and the towering Banner Peak on the main divide past Thousand Island Lake, which was visible for the remainder of the journey.
I attempted to follow an old pack trail marked on the USGS topo but it clearly had not existed in a good while. Before long our cross country jaunt intercepted the PCT and the trail jumped to engineered super-highway status. We also started running into plenty of moderately friendly hiker trash.
One final hill climb and we reached the scenic glacial polished slickrock, lush meadows, and roaring creek at the exit of Thousand Island Lake. We arrived to find a nasty headwind for the direction we wished to travel and abundant mosquitoes, but nevertheless I inflated the boats and we pushed off.
The lake is almost 1.5mi long, which combined with the headwind, made for a seemingly vast expanse. I quickly counted much less than a thousand islands, though it is fair to say there are more than a hundred. We occasionally stopped in the lee side of an island for a brief break from paddling before continuing on. Near the furthest side we spotted the ideal island- the only one capable of setting up a hammock, some nice rocks to lounge on, a small beach to swim from, and towering views of Banner Peak. Unfortunately here too there were pesky mosquitoes which put a damper on our plans to relax. Nevertheless we took a break, hiding from the mosquitoes in the hammock or water when possible.
The day was getting on so we soon turned around. With the wind in our
favor we made much better time paddling back across the lake. With
gravity in our favor we made slightly better time generally downhill
back to the car. We arrived about 7p making it a 12 hour day. It was good to get a little exercise and see some backcountry, if only for a day. A burger
and shake in Lee Vining seemed well deserved. Thanks to Sara.
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