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NEXT: Page 7 Pothole Dome
2023 Trip Chronicles: Contents
Clark Lakes 8/7
Clark Lakes 8/8
Clark Lakes 8/9
Ritter Range 8/10
Ritter Range 8/11
After the May San Jose Rose Garden work, I didn't pick up my camera again until early August that was primarily due to the unusually deep Sierra Nevada snowpack that lasted further into the summer than during any other of my lifetime. High elevation, ridge drifted, shaded northern exposures, held snow much longer than adjacent sunnier, south facing exposures. The snows also disrupted normal vegetation cycles causing a lack of synchronization between species that varied greatly within same zones. With gasoline prices near $5 per gallon, I was also less motivated to gamble on unknowns. Besides, I was having lots of rock music fun in the San Francisco urban areas including the 3 Dead & Company shows at the SF Giants ballpark and Dead jam bands on Jerry's Day at McLaren Park.
By late July, I'd settled on working a couple zones in the Ritter Range of Ansel Adams Wilderness I'd shot years ago with strong unfinished subjects. So at short notice got a permit for 6 days out of Agnew Meadows leaving eastward late afternoon directly from the Sunday 8/6/2023 Jerry's Day event that was indeed too much fun. Since the pandemic, Inyo NF had moved to a print permits at home process that removed the need to check in at a ranger station on day one. That also allowed my driving over Minaret Summit before the 8am cutoff, so no shuttle bus ride or fee. By evening I had reached Tioga Pass where I pulled over to sleep inside my Forester, hoping the altitude would help me acclimatize.
Dawn Monday August 7, 2023 was up to start the modest 45 minute drive south. I reached Mammoth Lakes early enough to stop in at Vons where I added a spray bottle of 25% DEET that because I didn't bring reading glasses in my pocket, thought the small print read 75%. Oh well, sprayed my hat. Over Minaret Summit then down to the 8320 foot vehicle full Agnew Meadows trailhead, mosquitoes were already active in the cool morning air,so DEET was necessary. I finalized my heavy pack that was maybe 57 pounds of total carrying weight for my 138# body. By 8am, I was on the Pacific Crest Trail that begins with 11 switchbacks up 400 feet of brushy vertical. I had done little heavy pack up stairs fitness preparation before the trip, so expected to be weak on this first trip of the summer. My minimum destination for this day was about 3.5 miles up the trail while Clark Lake at 9818 the preferred destination a strenuous 6.5 miles and about 2000 feet of vertical.
From the start noticing the effect of such a heavy weight, I was stopping briefly to sit on every available boulder or log. The first couple miles rises gradually with considerable lush vegetation and seeps. At least early in the morning while I moved through these wet zones, mosquitoes were still mostly asleep. The trail crests at 3 miles at 9700 feet, up 1400 feet, and then drops 200 feet to 9500. After a slow 4.5 hours, I reached that crest at 12:30pm. A few thru hiking groups passed me on their way north. The trail then resumes a mostly up with many minor downs, traversing a couple miles northward along the mostly avalanche path barren to shrub height west side of San Joaquin Ridge. Those slopes with rich volcanic soils cross several vegetation dense seep streams with much Sierra willow and wildflowers. The below 3pm Canon ELPH190 image shows these landscapes southward.
In the afternoon, I increasingly struggled moving along the trail, stopping longer at every sitting opportunity. At 4 miles stopped about an hour under a pine to rest and enjoy some food. Minor cumulus clouds were building up over the range. Although quite weary, at that point knew I could reach Clark Lakes by continuing to move along one stop at a time. At 5.5 miles, my Agnew Pass Trail splits going north of the PCT as it make the final ascent to the ridge saddle bench containing the Clark Lakes. Another weary group of 3 stopped with me there that was hoping to reach the Badger Lakes.
By 4:30pm or 8.5 hours after starting, I reached Summit Lake. Instead of setting up camp where planned, I was so weary that I was obviously not going to engage in any late afternoon photography. So was content to plunk down in a well used by others lodgepole forest up from the east shore of the main Clark Lake. There were no other groups at this main lake. I set up tent and camp, made a Mountain House freeze dried spaghetti with meat sauce dinner, took a dunk in the buggy lake, then retired into my tent. Getting into the lake while sun was not hidden behind clouds, without being hounded by mosquitoes, was an effort requiring several attempts. In any case, yeah was bitten maybe a dozen times running in just shorts back and forth to the lake edge. Sometimes such strenuous efforts can affect my ability to sleep, but after a wakeful start, fell asleep before waking 3 hours later and then managed another few hours of sleep my body sorely needed.
After retiring to sleep even at home as a senior with GI issues, I usually drink a minor amount of water to assist help food move through my plumbing. At night just outside my tent door will place a small piece of blue plastic tarp with my boots to stand up on next to my big tripod sans camera extended. Upon waking up, I will put on my headlamp, unizp the tent door, wobble grabbing the tripod for support, slip feet into boots, then take a short walk. As dawn approached Tuesday August 8, 2023, I felt well recovered so knew I could endure an active morning working a detailed list of photography subjects I'd been analyzing on caltopo and Google Earth 3D the previous week. Because north south trending San Joaquin Ridge blocks early sunlight on Clark Lake 9818 during early mornings, I used that time to crudely pack up then search the zone I intended to base camp below the upper eastern Clark lake. Thus was soon dropping my pack and wandering about looking for a reasonably level camp spot out of view of trails/routes, with afternoon shade. Like most crude places well away from trails or lake edges I tent at, the one I chose had never previously been used, was a bit lumpy with usual lodgepole pine forest debris I do little to improve, and slightly sloped. Because I mostly base camp so I can photography day hike, am not around my chosen camp areas much, so impacts tend to be minimal.
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But setting up tent and camp could wait till later. So instead removed my weighty Osprey daypack I biner and bunji attach at the back of my pack with big tripod, then headed off for my first subject that required climbing up steeply about 150 feet on the colorful Miocene andesite volcanic spine east in order to find a viewpoint looking across Clark Lake 9818 with Ritter Range peaks behind. Noticed a steep deer hoof path that told me it was the right spot to gain the ridge. Although most of the forest about the Clark Lakes consists of lodgepole pine, the ridge is dominated by whitebark pines. That brought me to a cliff edge view spot I had to monkey into. Unfortunately there would not be any areas at 8am where I could add a colorful foreground in sunlight and I was not going to wait 2 hours for the sun altitude to raise high enough to do so. It was a perfect location southwest orientation to frame the lake with the Ritter Range crest areas of Volcanic Ridge, The Minarets, Mt Ritter, Banner Peak in the background. The picture does justice in showing the incredible amount of remaining snow for early August this epic year.
But at 8am not only was the impressive volcanic foreground in useless shadows but so were eastern shores of the lake. Thus installed my more telephoto Sigma 56mm F1.4 lens and shot the above 3 column single row stitch blend. As a photographer used to shooting 4x5 film confined to a narrower jpg latitude than RAW, I tend to avoid contrasty subjects with larger shadows or bright elements. On that count, modern smartphones do a noticeably better job. In hindsight, looking at the excellent subject above with a modest result, I should have climbed back up later in the morning for a 4 column 2 row stitch, that would be my poorest decision during the trip.
As things turned out, I only camped in the Clark area 2 nights before leaving for the Thousand Island Lake zone, leaving many strong subjects I have a reason to return to in the future. That decision was affected by a weather forecast that pointed to imminent cloudy, stormy days that in fact happened. By time the above subject volcanic foreground would have been in sunlight, the many Ritter Range snowy areas would have been too contrasty, requiring less exposure, darkening dark areas too much. So yeah, will return another summer with less snow. Instead after climbing back down, I explored the upper eastern lake working a couple weak subjects. Also looked at the east shore views of the main lake that have no background views due to the tall forest, before returning to camp at 10am. The morning had been too breezy for lake reflections. So set up a nice camp, fetched water from the stream out of the eastern lake, made an early lunch, then took a long nap. Note given all the snow melt, did not bring a water filter on this trip and as usual, my GI health has been fine.
I had a long wait before any afternoon subjects might be worthwhile near 6pm. Antsy at 1pm after my nap, decided to do an exploratory loop hike CCW around the upper two larger western lakes. Both are fine looking small bodies with plenty of potential well used camp spots. Oddly, did not see a single fish ring? A nice stream flowed into the upper lake but during the recent drought years it would have been dry. The deep forest tends to reduce breeze waves across such lakes, reducing oxygenation and increasing stratification that can lead to trout suffication. The more open upper eastern lake like the main lake has an abundance of eastern brook trout and the small pond just west of the main lake also had fish. In fact one brookie I watched in the pond was a good foot long. On this busy photo trip, I brought no fishing gear. By mid afternoon I had returned to my camp.
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About 4pm left for the west shore of the main Clark Lake. That shore has the most camp spots with nice views eastward towards the impressive colorful volcanic cliffs. Like many High Sierra lakes above elevations for legal campfires (9600 feet in Ansel Adams Wilderness), there were plenty of recently used fire rings that shows the disrespect and inconsideration of many current backcountry visitors. Decades ago that tended to be horse packing groups but in this era, many entitled, policy ignoring, younger generation, foot hiking persons are on our trails. The swampy, stream seep, west shore of the main Clark Lake was easily the most mosquitoey zone I ventured about during my trip. Above image is a 3 column 30mm stitch blend with water sedges, the meadowy east shore edge, and up towards colorful eroded andesite volcanic cliffs with orange lichen, Jeffrey's shooting star, dodecatheon jeffrey, lodgepole pine, pinus contorta, whitebark pine, pinus albicaulis. Note the numbers of recently dead, brown trees in not only the above image but also others that reflects the recent drought years of our increasingly disastrous global warming climate change. Sub timberline lakes with shore areas of such sedges can support more fish because many acquatic insects as food, metamorphosize from eggs laid on their stems.
Although I was bitten just a few times each day, at this shore there were so many squeets about in clouds, that I had to be especially careful when changing lenses on my ILC A6000 body lest one fly into the sensor cavity requiring tedious cleaning. I do carry in my daypack an Eclipse Optic pure methanol fluid sensor cleaning kit with swabs and have used it many times over the last decade. It is absolutely the best way to perfectly clean a sensor. Although the methanol is also best for lenses, I tend to use a Pocket Rocket blower and synthetic cleaning cloths on my lenses and do so by habit frequently. Given an industrial level stereo microscope I use at home shooting at optimal prime lens apertures, and creation of large high detail images, am not one that subscribes to the dominant myth that dust etc on lenses or sensors is trivial.
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Without changing my tripod position, installed the medium telephoto Sony 85mm F1.4 lens for this single frame close-up of the bizarre eroded cliffs. The orange areas are orange lichen, golubkovia trachyphylla, that seems to thrive on such igneous geology. Where I climbed up to and shot the earlier UD03434-03469-3x1v.jpg image from, is the small bench at skyline one-third from left frame edge. As an old photographer that pre-trip plans daily photo sessions, I've always been surprised that very few other serious photographers in this current digital photography era ever seem do more than just shoot subjects they by happenstance come across on hiking routes instead of actually studying map topography etc to locate tripod locations with best perspectivess. Color landscape photographers in the era just before me like, Muench, Rowell, and those before them, made such efforts.
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Next hiked back east and at 6:30pm PDT worked the above modest dry landscape subject. Butterballs, erigonum ovalifolium, red elderberry, sambuscus racemosa, soft arnica, arnica mollis, basalt blocks, andesite volcanic cliff, whitebark pine. Note at the top of the light brown hued basalt blocks are dried gone to seed spreading phlox that reflect earliest areas that arose from the winter's deep snows. The elderberry and arnica grow at the base of those blocks where water leaves. The foreground butterballs colonized the broken rock shards where meadow grasses could not put down deeper roots.
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Another modest unbalanced yet colorful image but from the side of the Andesite volcanic cliff with orange lichen.
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On Wednesday August 9, 2023, I rose at sunrise, grabbed photo gear, and was soon on my way towards the south side of Summit Lake to a view spot identified during Tuesday's exploration loop. I was glad to see an early morning cloudless sky without a breeze. Thus at an early 7:25am worked the above 3 column horizontal orientation stitch image with my 30mm lens, 14200 by 4000 pixels. Possible foreground areas were mediocre with shadows at frame right, so was content with mainly infinity focus shots. This was my widest Ritter Range image of the trip including Volcanic Ridge, The Minarets, Badger L, Mt Ritter, Banner Pk, Mt Davis, Rogers Pk, Mt Lyell. Forest areas especially at frame left take an aesthetic hit due to a lack green vibrancy from the low sun altitude.
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My next subject was nearby at 8:05am from above the trail along the east end of Summit Lake that fortunately was during a brief null period of calm. Thus the above mirror reflection with great red paintbrush, castilleja miniata, orange lichen, Labrador tea, ledum glandulosum, lodgepole pine, mountain hemlock, tsuga mertensiana, and Ritter Range crest peaks between The Minarets and Mt Davis. A reason the lake waters are so dark is due to low angle sunlight being refracted by total internal reflection without reaching bottom areas. I like the dramatic foreground contrast that created.
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This next image cannot be seen from the lake edge trail as is on a bench. A subject others with cameras on the trail just walk past, unawares, that I'd explored July 4th in 1989 from a bit higher bench where 7 of us base camped. My strongest image this summer with a colorful foreground of dark basalt with orange lichen, golubkovia trachyphylla, a bit of Summit Lake, lodgepole pine, Volcanic Ridge, The Minarets, Mt Ritter, Banner Pk, Mt Davis. At 8:45am used 81 often redundant shots on this 3 column stitch 30mm vertical lens orientation of 8000 by 6000 pixels image in order to be sure the foreground was extra sharp. Note the gone to seed spreading phlox. The strong foreground colors below patchy snow fields creates a strong instant upon viewing aesthetic contrast effect. My strongest image this summer.
Climbing higher, was another location I worked at 8:45am with my 35mm film SLR in 1989. View the 4 column 30mm lens vertical stitch is at page top. This is high enough to see parts of Thousand Island Lake as well as the outlet stream white cascades from Garnet Lake. Select the enlarged vertical slice view to view a small section of those cascades.
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The above image a few minutes later at 9am shows another dense area of orange lichen affording an aesthetic frame NNW towards Clark Lake 9818 with a background of Donahue Pk, Blacktop Pk, Parker Pk, Mt Wood. Although there were more outcrops of basalt with lichen higher on the ridge, I now regrettably with hindsight, declined climbing higher to work them during this ending period of excellent blue sky weather. Instead was impatient, more interested in packing up and moving on to spectacular Thousand Island Lake. In any case, already had enough strong images to ensure the trip was a success and really needed to spend more than just another hour at higher areas of that ridge. In 1989, we all climbed up to the ridge plateau that early summer has an abundance of belly wildflowers and then climbed to the top of Carson Peak.
After returning to camp and packing up, I left via the trail climbing 150 feet along the two western Clark Lakes that then descends 400 feet to the River Trail, and then up 250 feet to reach areas east of Thousand Island Lake along the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River. After that modestly unpleasant short effort, at 11am set up camp legally camped just beyond the 1/4 mile from outlet JMT bridge NO CAMPING zone. There are tentable spots within the lodgepole pine forest areas north of the trail, however no views and not really any spots south of the trail unless fording the river that was running high given tons of still melting snow off Banner Peak. Otherwise, most groups camp out in the open along areas west of the JMT/PCT above the north side of the huge lake. I took a dip in the river, and made lunch.
I carefully created using calphoto and Photoshop, the below two camping zone maps that I will be sending larger versions of to Inyo National Forest that they might use at least online to help future visitors and reduce efforts of wilderness rangers that has been an ongoing battle for decades keeping groups from tenting in those areas. As one can see, the large peninsula in that circle on the south side of the lake where rangers constantly roust groups from, is fully within the circle while the adjacent smaller peninsula just west beyond the circle, doesn't have any areas that are at least 100 feet from the lake edges. There are plenty of places to camp if one bothers to climb up 100 plus feet into the forest areas.
Later I took a couple hikes looking at morning photo opportunities. Wildflowers were fewer than normal and species were obviously out of synchronization over short distances. At the east end zone of the lake were more scattered snow patches than about the Clark Lakes while the west end had lots of large snow fields. Skies remained relatively sunny but that changed by late afternoon as clouds and light showers moved in with a southeast monsoon flow. In any case in that east lake zone, there aren't strong photography subjects during afternoons.
I did make one A6000 1080p video in a river area. At the northwest end of the lake, the inlet stream off the Banner Peak snowfields have some of the best rainbow spawning areas in the range. My video shows at least a half dozen huge rainbow trout of at least 18 inch length at close range of about a dozen feet feeding in the current. As someone that has seen numbers of large fish over decades in Sierra Nevada lakes, I'll estimate the largest fish was a salmon sized 22 inches. Also were a couple of probable cutthroat trout, 12 inches and 15 inches. This epic summer of 2023 will be a boon for rainbow and golden trout populations in lakes with larger stream inflows while some lakes at highest, shaded locations may have such a short summer that trout disappear.
I did meet the resident Inyo NF backcountry ranger briefly who mentioned he was daily rousting a few groups that set up camps within 1/4 mile of both Thousand Island and Garnet Lake outlet bridges. Most that did so were arriving late afternoon and obviously like many groups, never actually read the provided recreation dot gov policy information for those acquiring permits. Or some did but like many lazy entitled types today, just ignore whatever. Told him about Clark Lake illegal camp fire rings he will be looking at. Sierra penstemon flower on charger.
Overnight clouds increased though most were east of the crest. With gear prepared during evening, I rose before dawn Thursday August 10, 2023, then hiked up to an off trail view point northeast of the big lake and as orange sunlight hit the crest peaks, took the above shot. Then without much hope, worked a couple more I'd shot with 4x5 film years before. But with mediocre flowers and somewhat breeze wavy lake waters per above, none of those 3 subjects were going to ever be made public as drum scans from I my old 4x5 Provia 100F transparencies are so much better. For example:
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By mid morning, more clouds had moved in and breezes became stronger so I returned to camp, moved my tent to a better nearby spot, then headed out with a plan for fun.
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During afternoon, light showers fell off and on. After sunset, shot the above single frame of modest cloud colors.
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During the night, weather was looking worse and at sunrise a sizeable isolated thunderstorm with lightning moved northward over San Joaquin Ridge, then into the Tioga Pass region. As I rose on Friday August 11, 2023, it was obvious the morning would be worthless. At 7:45am, I did shoot the above fine close-up of butterballs, erigonum ovalifolium, and pussy paws, calyptridum umbellatum, on metavolcanic stones. It appeared the monsoon flow might push east of the Ritter Range peaks but by mid morning more clouds moved in with light showers so it was time to bail although I might have stayed another night. The below is a 100% pixels crop from the above UD04438-47.jpg image showing actual detail.
Thus returned to camp, packed up, and began the long 7 mile trudge mostly downhill on the River Trail, stopping to rest frequently on any trailside boulders or logs. On such longer trail days, the main reason for stopping becomes sore feet. After say 3 backpacking trips during any summer, my feet become less affected. The showers and light breezes down in the canyon seemed to bring out lots of mosquitoes. As I neared the Shadow Lake junction, a thunderstorm moved in with a few heavy showers, so quickly set up my tent, then spent a couple hours till 6pm making lunch and napping. After the storm moved away, skies cleared some so I packed up and finished the final unpleasant 3 miles up to Agnew Meadows and my vehicle.
I waited some till 7pm, in order to pass through the Minaret Summit checkpoint without having to pay $15, then drove down into Mammoth Lakes and then north on US395 to SR120 where I overnighted near Tioga Pass. Saturday August 12, I drove west into Yosemite and Tuolumne Meadows. I then dayhiked out on Pothole Dome and decided after driving home and the monsoon flow departed, might return in a few days and work this front country zone I had been to many times years before.
NEXT: Page 7 Pothole Dome
David Senesac
email: info@davidsenesac.com
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