High Sierra Loop

Emboldened by success at winning the Yosemite backpacking permit lottery for Hetch Hetchy, Avery applied for High Sierra loop permits. On the second try, she was awarded the permits with the option to do Half Dome! Having been thwarted due to wildfire on his last Half Dome permit, Aaron was particularly keen on checking that item off his bucket list. Joining the brother-sister pair on this backpacking trip were Avery’s trusty boyfriend Morgan and their friends Andrew and Karissa. It was decided this would be a warmup for their planned trip to Kings Canyon later this year.

The group started off from the Glen Aulin trailhead around lunch time. They took the Rafferty Creek trail headed to Vogelsang.

There was much discussion on how exactly Vogelsang should be pronounced. Avery thought Vo:gelle:sang. Aaron thought the g should be silent (no one knows if he was serious). In doing research for this trip report it appears that it is a last name of German origin and is pronounced ˈfoːɡəlzaŋ. It means “meadow where birds sing”.

Rafferty Creek was dry. It was mostly uphill and they could feel the elevation!

After reaching the Vogelsang High Sierra Camp at Fletcher Lake, the group made the decision to abandon the original plan of camping at Vogelsang Lake and instead camped at Fletcher Lake (10157′). It had been a tough 7.6 miles with 1527 ft of elevation gain.

Avery and Morgan took part in some golden hour fishing. Morgan caught two brook trout before the group even got the tents set up. Avery tried her hand after dinner and landed a few on her fly rod!

• 

• 

• 

This was very exciting. Avery and Morgan have never seen (let alone caught) a brook trout in person before. Most of the fish they caught were very colorful. The internet says that means they are getting ready to spawn soon. Avery had dreams with white tipped red fins that night.

The next morning, Morgan caught another 12 brook trout while “filtering water”. The rest of the group made breakfast and got packed up. The destination was Merced Lake for a 7.6 mile day. Since they considered this to be a leisurely amount of miles, they opted to take a side detour to Emeric Lake (9338′).

At Emeric Lake, Morgan immediately broke out his fishing rod. From her research, Avery was 65% sure she remembered the lake was “fishless”. Morgan said that he would find out! He took off for the other end of the lake and was not seen for half an hour. The rest of the group hung out in the shade, cooled their heels, and had a snack.

After half an hour, Aaron volunteered to find the fisherman. Avery, Karissa, and Andrew got started hiking back to the trail. When Morgan and Aaron caught up, he proclaimed that he had caught 5 fish in the “Fishless Lake”!

According to the topo, the rest of the day was slated to be mostly downhill.

“Mostly downhill” turned out to be mostly downhill with steep rocky sections made out of knee crushing rock staircases. Morgan led the way, blazing downhill so that he could fish every pool in Fletcher Creek.

• 

• 

• 

Avery and Aaron lagged behind Morgan and finally caught up to him fishing at the intersection of Lewis Creek. He said he had only been there for 5-10 minutes, but somehow had already caught another handful of fish.

Avery and Aaron made lunch while they waited for Andrew and Karissa to catch up. They had agreed on meeting at a “good lunch spot” and this was it! There were great sitting and cooking logs. Avery made Morgan’s homemade (and then dehydrated) Larb and rice. It was so tasty! Andrew and Karissa made pizzas that Andrew decided were actually more like calzones.

After lunch, the group got their first look at half dome. It was really far away!

When they arrived at Merced Lake, they found that they were only allowed to camp in the backpacker’s campground due to restoration efforts around the lake. Since they were the first to arrive, they took the best site- a secluded large site enclosed by giant logs that were thicker than Avery is tall!

Andrew, Karissa, and Aaron relaxed at camp while Avery and Morgan hit the Merced River. Working each side of the river they made their way toward the lake. Morgan got a lot of bites and Avery got none. Then it happened. Morgan got a huge bite! He reeled it in and it was a 15 inch brook trout. He couldn’t believe it! It was so big he could barely lift it out of the water. As he heaved it up to show Avery, it squirted out of his hands and broke his line. It laid dazed in the water for a second before darting out of reach, taking Morgan’s second to last lure with it.

Morgan was devastated. He lost his dinner and his best lure. The trout now only existed in Avery’s memory. Here is an approximate re-creation.

Utterly defeated, Morgan refused to fish more and said they had to return to camp. When they got back, they all cooked dinner. They tried a little more fishing after dinner while filtering water. This mostly consisted of Morgan seeing big trout that wouldn’t go for his last lure and Avery casting into trees. When they got back to camp, they found Blister Surgeon Andrew operating on Karissa’s feet.

Aaron and Avery could not comprehend how Karissa got so many blisters (9? 10? 20?) and also how she didn’t whine about them at all!

The next day, Morgan and Avery woke up early to go fishing. Morgan caught 3 brown trout. Avery caught a nosebleed (out of both sides… again!). Morgan gave Avery his pack towel. They went back to camp and had trout for breakfast.

The next morning, after consulting with a friendly ranger, Alex, the group found out that their plan to camp near Sunrise High Sierra camp was bust due to it being dry for miles. He instead suggested that they camp at Cathedral Lakes. The new plan was made that the non-Half-Dome-hikers would make camp on the trail to Sunrise where they could find water. This was estimated to be about 3/4 of a mile from the trail junction.

Karissa decided to skip Half Dome due to all her blisters. Andrew decided he would stay with Karissa. Morgan, adamant from the start that he did not want to do Half Dome again, also skipped to pursue his dream of a trout grand slam (3 types of trout in 24 hours).

This left Avery to accompany Aaron to the top of Half Dome. She decided she would hike the extra 8.8 miles to make Aaron’s Half Dome dreams come true.

The brother-sister duo departed from the group just after lunch and left their packs at a trail junction.

After wading through 2 miles of spiky bushes, the brother-sister pair made it to the base of the sub dome. On the way up they ran into a guy who asked if they had extra permits. They did! Shortly after, they came to a ranger checking permits. He advised them that they turn around on the cables if the ominous rain clouds started moving closer or if they felt too tired.

The trio burned their thighs hiking up the sub dome and then were at the base of the infamous Half Dome cables.

Aaron took a look at the incline and felt a sense of trepidation. He was not sure if he wanted to get on those cables. Luckily a group of climbers stopped to talk to the pair. They said that although it looks like it’s an 80 degree angle, it might actually be closer to 60 once you get on them. Aaron thought that 60 degrees still sounded extremely steep. Then the climbers said that the brother sister pair looked “strong” and could definitely do it. This was enough to get Aaron pumped enough to put on his gloves and get on the cables. If he didn’t, he would have regrets!

Since it was so late in the day, they were the second to last group to go up the cables. The climbers were right, Avery and Aaron had no problems climbing the cables. They made it to the top around 3:48 (because Avery said they could only stay at the top for 12 minutes).

• 

• 

• 

They took a few pictures at the top. Aaron refused to get close to the edge. When Avery made fun of him, he pointed out that she did not get close to the edge either. He was right.

The pair headed down the cables. It was pretty easy because there were only a few people left going down. The permit guy had a few foot slips, which made them nervous, but otherwise it was very uneventful. They were excited to be back on flat ground!

It was then a race to get back to their packs! Aaron had underestimated the distance and told Andrew to come looking for them if they weren’t back by 6. It was looking more like they would get back to their packs at 6:30. Additionally, they were running out of water. Aaron’s knees hurt. Avery’s feet hurt. They were thirsty for the water they left in their packs.

Aaron and Avery could see a blue shirt through the trees. It was Morgan! Or Andrew in his blue puffy! No, it was definitely Morgan come to save them. Morgan was casually stretching when Avery hobbled up. Aaron and Avery chugged their water and regaled Morgan with tales of Half Dome.

Morgan revealed the news that the group had made camp another 2 miles up the trail. Avery and Aaron were floored. They were anticipating only another mile and couldn’t bear the thought of walking another step. Morgan volunteered to carry Avery’s pack. Aaron negotiated that Morgan would take his pack (which was heavier) and Aaron would carry Avery’s pack.

Aaron made it 1 mile. Then Morgan took Avery’s pack and made it his “front pack”- carrying both packs (what a hero) the last mile to camp and leaving Avery and Aaron staggering behind.

Aaron and Avery finally made it back to camp (15.8 miles for Day 3) just after dark where there was fresh water, recovery beverages, hot food, and bandages for their blisters.

Day 4 began with the group refreshed from a good night’s sleep. This section of the hike was to be shorter due to the extra miles on Day 3. The plan was to hike to Lower Cathedral Lake at a distance of 6.2 miles.

The first two miles was all up hill. Then it opened up into a beautiful meadow!

There were lots of uniquely shaped mountain peaks along the trail. Avery kept saying it was so beautiful and the weather was so good and there was nothing to complain about. Then, she complained about how it would have been even nicer if there was water in the meadow streams.

After having their permits checked yet again by a ranger in Long Meadow, the group took his advice to camp at Upper Cathedral Lake. He reported seeing 15 inch trout earlier that day. Bolstered by other reports from hikers that there were fish jumping in the lake, Morgan felt the lake calling to him and ran to Upper Cathedral Lake.

Just before reaching the lake, the group began to feel rain drops fall. The ominous clouds had finally rolled into the valley. Avery set up the tent and everyone stashed their backpacks in the vestibule. Aaron, having left the rain fly at home to save weight, sheltered in Avery and Morgan’s tent. Undeterred by the rain, Morgan circled the lake, hunting for trout. He returned dejected, reporting that there were no fish in the lake and that this was the real “Fishless Lake”.

Throughout the afternoon, Morgan continued to go back and forth from the camp and the lake looking for fish. Andrew and Karissa read their kindles. Avery and Aaron hung out in the tent and bemoaned the fact that Avery had left Star Realms at home.

• 

• 

Finally, at sunset Karissa reported fish jumping in the lake. Avery and Morgan got out of their sleeping bags immediately. However, they were not able to catch any of the jumpers.

The next morning, Avery looked out of the tent and reported to Morgan that she still did not see any fish jumping. Morgan heard that there were fish jumping and got up right away. Aaron woke up and went for a leisurely stroll around the lake and a hike to see if he could see the ranger’s recommendation of seeing both lakes at the same time. When Avery got up, Aaron pantomimed to her across the lake that they should go see the sunrise.

Avery thought Aaron had found a big fish so she walked around the lake. They went up together and caught this beautiful view!

After strolling back (and scouting the rest of the lake)- Avery, Aaron and Morgan made breakfast. Karissa and Andrew had already eaten so they took Aaron’s suggestion to see the view.

Afterwards, everyone packed up for the last time and hiked the last 3.8 miles out to the Cathedral Lakes trailhead. Morgan got there first and claimed his back hurt and that he couldn’t make it to the car. Avery and Aaron left their packs with him and Karissa and walked the last 2.3 miles to the car. Andrew, unleashed, ran with his lightened pack to the ranger station to return the bear can. Avery and Aaron saw him appear as a blue streak in the distance.

When Avery, Aaron, and Andrew returned to the Cathedral Lakes trailhead with the cars, they found only Karissa. Where was Morgan?! They found him a short distance away at a small fishing hole, having caught a final 5 brown trout.

This was the final cherry on top of a successful weekend of backpacking! Stay tuned for the next report: Rae Lakes Loop in Kings Canyon!