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Rae Lakes Loop: 8th to 10th August 2005 Day 2 We were up early to start our second day and pleased to find that the tent and fly didn't have any condensation which made packing much easier. Skipping breakfast at camp, as usual, we headed up a spectacular section of trail to Dollar Lake, the first lake of the trip, where we cooked our oatmeal at 8:30 am. Although the trail to the lake was magnificent the lake was disappointing and suffering a bit from mosquitoes.
From the lake the trail continued to be amazing and at 10:15 am we were in the heart of Rae Lakes at the sign post indicating the trail that led to the Ranger Station. We continued on and pitched our tent just south and east of the log bridge that connects the two main lakes. Our site was perched directly on a flat granite slab (hooray for our 2.5" thick Big Agnes air mattresses) overlooking the southern Rae Lake, the rock formation called the Painted Lady, and 12,000-foot Glen Pass. After setting up the tent we left most of the gear inside, packed some food, and began the ascent to the Sixty Lakes Basin which required a climb from our current elevation of 10,700 feet to 11,200 feet before heading down to the lakes. Although the skies had been blue when arrived at Rae Lakes they were now gray and the four trail workers we passed told us they had had thunderstorms everyday for the last two weeks. Hey, I was all for that but instead of a spectacular light show the sky barely spit, we heard thunder perhaps 5 times, and saw no lightning. In fact, the only thing the thunderstorm did was make the sky gray, boo hoo. So it was under these conditions that we headed up to the Sixty Lakes Basin. By the time we reached the summit and looked down at the lakes we had no desire to continue so we took some photos and headed back down to the Rae Lakes. However, on the way back we had cause for celebration as Emily made her first dookie in the woods. She also found a leather work glove, certainly left by a trail worker, but when she carried it down and returned it he seemed more annoyed than anything else and muttered something about burning it.
Back down at Rae Lakes we found a nice place to swim but, alas, the lakes were a bit too cold to be enjoyable so after quickly cleaning ourselves we washed our clothes and then went back to our campsite to enjoy the scenery. During this time the JMT hiker from Manchester ambled by, said hello, and began to climb the pass. And this is were it all began to go wrong... This trip was based on Kevin Gong's trip (KevinGong.com) and the exact same trip my co-worker Henrik took in which they spent 6 or 7 days for the entire loop. Based on that timetable, we planned on getting to Rae Lakes on our 2nd night and spending the entire 3rd day there, with a day trip to the Sixty Lakes Basin and an ascent of Glen Pass early on the 4th day. However, here it was, early afternoon on the 2nd day and we had already done everything we had planned for the first 3 days. And, as I said before, Em was leading the way the entire time. The solution was obvious so we packed up the tent, bid a fond farewell to our unused campsite and began the climb up Glen Pass, Em's first high sierra pass, at 3:30 pm. We made solid progress, gaining about 1,300 feet along the 2.8 mile trail to the pass and at 4:45 pm we reached the knife-edge pass. Em was ecstatic. We had now climbed about 7,000 feet vertically in under two days so the rest of the trip would be downhill. As a bonus the skies where blue on the southern side of the pass, a pleasant change from the gray that had dominated the Rae Lakes region.
Heading down the pass we encountered an unnamed lake and would later deem it to be the prettiest of the entire trip. It was situated in a bowl just below the switchbacks, was fed by snow melt only, had no outlet, was crystal clear yet bright teal in shallow sections changing to pitch black in deeper sections. We looked for a flat area to camp but didn't find a suitable place and moved on.
We descended at a leisurely pace, with no goals in mind and at some point, right in the middle of the trail, decided to make dinner. This was a waterless site but our chili-mac only required 2.5 cups of water so it didn't matter. Perhaps it was the altitude, or maybe I just brought too much food, but we were only able to eat about 2/3 of dinner and ended up flinging the rest down the cliff. I used another cup of water to wash out the pot and then we hit the trail again, not stopping until we set up camp. Our selected campsite was just adjacent to the JMT/PCT between the junctions that lead to Kearsarge Pass and Charlotte Lake and was an area unlike anything I had ever seen in the sierras. It was very flat and open yet covered with sand and fine rocks rather than meadows. We both considered it to be a fine place to spend the night and after using our remaining water to wet our bandanas and wipe our grubby faces, necks, and arms we went to bed. While snug in the tent we laughed at how I jumped up and down and cursed when we poured our precious water onto my carefully folded bandana for our sponge bath only to watch it bead up and run off. What the hell kind of cotton is it made of? Emily also had a chance to play her favorite tent game, waiting for mosquitoes to land on the netting and then "sending them into orbit" with a flick of her finger. We were having a grand time. |
