Day 72: Garnet Lake - Donohue Pass - Lyell Fork Valley (mi JMT 8 - PCT 932)

A spectacular of Garnet Lake, Mt. Ritter and Branner Peak. 

Minus One climbs north out of the Garnet Lake basin.

Dr. Slosh, Smiles and Minus One stand mosquito-free above Thousand Island Lake with Branner Peak eclipsing Mt. Ritter in the background. 

Thousand Island Lake in the Ansel Adams Wilderness.

Minus One closes in on the top of Donohue Pass. An inferior ridge coming off of Mt. Lyell is visible. 

Alpine mosquitoes continued bothering us atop Donohue Pass. 

Atop Donohue Pass and into Yosemite National Park!

Minus One was pleased with the improvement in trail quality once in Yosemite. Donohue Peak is visible to the right. 

Smiles in front of Mt. Lyell & associated glacier, and Mt. Maclure.

Minus One descends with the crown of the Cathedral range in the background.

The Mt. Lyell ampitheater. Nice moraines, and one can only guess as to the size of the bergschrunds around the glacier. 

Minus One and Dr. Slosh with the Mt. Lyell amphitheater. 

Smiles & Dr. Slosh with the Mt. Lyell amphitheater. 

The Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne River. 

A beautiful sunrise on Mt Ritter & Branner peak, and fish rising all over the place in Garnet lake. Minus One had been up puttering around and taking in the view since daybreak, and I crawled out of my tent around 7 to try and catch breakfast. I promptly lost my tackle, and had an unsuccessful attempt at lighting wet tinder for a breakfast fire. I settled on alcohol stove for hot coffee. We started out of camp around 9:15, an were increasingly besieged by mosquitoes while moving north to Emerald, Ruby and then Thousand Island Lakes. Vicious alpine specimens, they cared not about deet, permethrin, wind, or walking speed. All the lakes were beautiful and unique, though Thousand Island lake wasn't fully appreciated until a vista point a couple hundred feet up was attained. We crossed the relatively unremarkable island pass and dropped down to Rush Creek for a mosquito-filled lunch. I iced my shins in the snowmelt-gorged creek on the 80-degree at 10,000 feet day. Minus One had been hypoglycemic heading down the hill and ate well. Smiles was pestered by large, alpine ants for most of lunch. After lunch, we clambered over streams of all sizes repeatedly as we gradually climbed to Donohue Pass, just north of Mt. Lyell. The mosquitoes were borderline pestilential, but attaining the pass and its remnant snowfield afforded us a brief respite. During our snack break up top, two other PCT hiker groups came by, the first we'd seen all day. One Pint and Headstand were first, followed shortly thereafter by Guy on a Buffalo and Nightcrawler, and three of whom we hadn't seen since Kennedy Meadows (or shortly thereafter). While the view from the east side of Donohue Pass was nice, the view to the west was stunning: the huge glacial cirque of the Lyell valley lay to the south, and the river cascaded down to a wide braided floor some 4,000 feet below the ampitheater's crown, running north for 10 miles to Tuolemne Meadows. All three of us concurred that it was a serious glacier, the last part of which was still in action on the north slopes of Mt. Lyell. Several prominent moraines were visible. Many photos were taken in the striking valley, and I got a nice video of everyone hopping across boulders to cross the river. We jammed down a couple miles further and set up camp 10 miles south of TM. I fired up an anti-mosquito cigar, and eventually we settled into a dinner of couscous, chicken and avocado. Amazing that we have had (some) fresh food at almost every meal this leg! Minus One reflected on his last night in the backcountry with us that he thinks thru-hiking is totally insane, and asked again why we were doing it. We shared various motivations, strategies to get through the tough times, Etc, and he admired the pursuit. It's a lot of work, true, but it beats a lot of actual work.