Goals for the day: Get over Island Pass and end the day at Rosalie Lake

Sunrise was pretty nice from where I camped, so enjoyed it while I ate breakfast and packed my camp up.

Felt pretty good as I set off, but that changed as I started the climb towards Island Pass (10,200 feet).

It took me a little over 2 hours to get to Island Pass, so there was no way I would have made it the night before. I was a little surprised at how long it took (but I often am). 🙂

It was a gorgeous area and I really wish I could have camped there. Mountains, lake, meadows great views… it had it all. This pass actually was a pretty wide meadow area, so not a rocky pass that dropped off on both sides, although the southern side was a somewhat steep descent towards Thousand Island Lake.

I passed a pack train (a horse and mule team used to resuppy hikers, ranger stations, and other back country destinations) on my way down.

Thousand Island Lake was a nice rest stop, but I think they are exaggerating the number of islands. 😀 My sample itinerary had this as a stop for the previous night, but I had already determined a couple days earlier (and during planning) that I would not be able to make it this far on day 5.

It was mostly downhill from here, except for a set of switchbacks climbing to Rosalie Lake which was my target for the night. Two days earlier, I was wondering if I would be able to make it all the way to Reds Meadow by night 6 as my sample itinerary listed. I had been VERY overconfident when I thought that.

Really, the only goal for that day from where was to get as close to Reds Meadow as possible without getting there. Since my hikers cabin reservation was for the following night, I was hoping for a short hike in the morning so I could take a relaxing day there.

The Devils Postpile National Monument gets all the attention for it’s vertical rock columns, but I saw several similar rock formations near Ruby Lake.

Garnet Lake was also a very beautiful lake that would have made a good camping spot. But after a break, I started down towards Shadow Lake only to encounter another person who doesn’t understand the idea of social distancing. Someone was sitting on the only route across the lake’s outlet, a narrow wooden log bridge. After a quick ‘excuse me’, he moved and I made my way over and then started climbing up the small ridge on the other side of the lake.

Despite some beautiful views on the way down, the long descent (1,200 feet) from Garnet lake took a lot out of me and seemed to go on forever, so my goal of at least getting to Rosalie Lake eluded me. It was best not push myself so early in the trek. I should still be able to get to Reds Meadows by noon the next day.

It was tricky to find a legal site near Shadow Creek, since the a large area along it is off limits to camping and there was NO camping allowed at Shadow Lake at all. I would have pushed to at least Shadow Lake otherwise.

But after following a use trail (unofficial trails that are generally left by wilderness hikers who go to a particular location… such as a wilderness campsite), I found a nice shaded area on a knob that overlooked Shadow Lake.

It had a great view at sunset and some nice views of the stars during my late night visits to the bushes.

10 miles hiked, 9 hours, 1,350 feet climbed
48 total miles hiked on the JMT

Highlights:
• Island Pass (Pass #3 Conquered)
• Thousand Island Lake
• Garnet Lake
• Long decent to Shadow Creek
• Achieved one of my daily goal (Island Pass), but came up short of reaching Rosalie Lake