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John Muir Trail / High Trail / PCT loop on Labor Day Weekend 2019
Previous
Saturday August 31, 2019
John Muir Trail from Devil's Postpile to Gladys Lake

Sunday September 1, 2019
John Muir Trail from
Gladys Lake to
Thousand Island Lake
Next
Monday September 2, 2019
High Trail / PCT from
Thousand Island Lake to
Agnew Meadow



2019/09/01 06:35



2019/09/01 06:43



2019/09/01 07:00



2019/09/01 07:04

I woke up early, bundled up, and started taking sunrise pictures.
It was chilly!

After snapping pictures for nearly an hour I finally ate a little breakfast and slowly broke camp



2019/09/01 08:35

Ray texted:
Meow-meow taking an eternity to get ready!

Paul:
Remember the first Grand Canyon trip we took with him?
He wanted to stay in Flagstaff so that we could get an early jump on our first down and out hike?
We started down at 10:50.



2019/09/01 08:55



2019/09/01 08:55



2019/09/01 08:56



2019/09/01 08:56



2019/09/01 08:58



2019/09/01 08:58



2019/09/01 09:03



2019/09/01 09:07

Leaving Gladys Lake
We were going to see seven different lakes today!
That's why the John Muir Trail is so special...
By the time we started hiking at around 9am it was t shirt weather again.
We managed to leave before the mosquitoes got too bad.




2019/09/01 09:07



2019/09/01 09:07



2019/09/01 09:23

Rosalie Lake is only about 15 minutes from Gladys Lake



2019/09/01 09:23

Rosalie Lake



2019/09/01 09:23

Rosalie Lake



2019/09/01 09:23

Rosalie Lake 9,390'




2019/09/01 09:23

Rosalie Lake



2019/09/01 09:31

Rosalie Lake



2019/09/01 09:31

Rosalie Lake

The trail heads uphill briefly before dropping 600' down to Shadow Lake




2019/09/01 09:41

Headed down from Rosalie Lake to Shadow Lake




2019/09/01 09:41

Headed down from Rosalie Lake to Shadow Lake



2019/09/01 09:43

Headed down from Rosalie Lake to Shadow Lake



2019/09/01 09:43

Headed down from Rosalie Lake to Shadow Lake



2019/09/01 09:47

Headed down from Rosalie Lake to Shadow Lake




2019/09/01 10:00

Shadow Lake



2019/09/01 10:00

Shadow Lake



2019/09/01 10:04

Shadow Lake



2019/09/01 10:04

Shadow Lake



2019/09/01 10:08

Shadow Lake - 9,053' - milepost 7.8 on the JMT

After Shadow Lake it is all uphill for a few hours straight....



2019/09/01 10:21

Shadow Creek



2019/09/01 10:23

Shadow Creek




2019/09/01 10:27

Shadow Creek




2019/09/01 10:39

Shadow Creek

When I planned this trip I assumed we'd be camping for 3 nights.
However if we decided to spend third night camping, we'd need to wake up well before dawn to break camp on Tuesday, and we'd be under pressure all day long to hike 5+ hours then drive 5+ hours to get Ray back to the airport in time for his 7pm flight back to Phoenix.

I left the schedule entirely up to Ray at this point since I've been here before and he was the one who had to fly home.
Ray decided  that it made more sense to hike out on Monday and have an easy day on Tuesday.
This certainly made more sense than leaving Thousand Island Lake before dawn, since the best time of day at Thousand Island Lake was sunrise..




2019/09/01 11:13



2019/09/01 11:13



2019/09/01 11:13



2019/09/01 12:04



2019/09/01 12:08

Finally we reached the pass between Shadow Creek and Garnet Lake... and found watermelon  (pink) snow caused by Chlamydomonas nivalis




2019/09/01 12:31



2019/09/01 12:32

Garnet Lake, 9,759'

We had lunch at Garnet Lake at the same spot Kent, Jed and I had camped in 2016 (and where I'd also had lunch in 2017).
I didn't take a single picture of lunch this time.



2019/09/01 13:25



2019/09/01 13:41

Finally we got to the pass between Garnet Lake and Thousand Island Lake, and I told Ray (incorrectly, it turns out) that we were done with major uphill hiking for this trip.



2019/09/01 13:49

Ruby Lake




2019/09/01 14:00

Ruby Lake



2019/09/01 14:07

Ruby Lake



2019/09/01 14:07

Ruby Lake, 9,967', milepost 13.3 on the JMT



Ruby Lake




2019/09/01 14:18
Emerald Lake - 9,912' - milepost 13.6 on the JMT



2019/09/01 14:23



2019/09/01 14:30



2019/09/01 14:30



2019/09/01 14:34

We got to Thousand Island Lake and started to look for a campsite.
We kept going farther and farther away from the JMT/PCT in search of a great spot.




2019/09/01 15:49



2019/09/01 15:49



2019/09/01 16:32



2019/09/01 18:19



2019/09/01 18:19



2019/09/01 18:25

Finally around 3pm we found a great spot.
There weren't anywhere near as many mosquitos at our campsite here as last night.
Part of the difference we were further away from the lake.

We watched people straggle in for hours after we established camp.
At dusk we saw a group of 6 that we'd seen earlier yesterday -

Total for the day according to my iPhone health app:
9.8 miles
29,146 steps
80 floors climbed


Previous
Saturday August 31, 2019
John Muir Trail from Devil's Postpile to Gladys Lake

Sunday September 1, 2019
John Muir Trail from Gladys Lake to Thousand Island Lake
Next
Monday September 2, 2019
High Trail / PCT from Thousand Island Lake to Agnew Meadow