| Day 2 of 60 miler Trip Report |
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| Day 2 of 60 miler   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: California, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 37.65300°N / 119.32°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Jul 14, 2003 | Page By: Brett A Created/Edited: Oct 21, 2003 / Object ID: 168822 Hits: 368 Loading... Page Score: 0% - 0 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
On the morning of July 13, 2003, our group of 14 (Boy Scouts) left the Granite Creek Campground just south of Ansel Adams Wilderness. It was day 1 of a 60 mile backpacking trip that would end at Silver Lake in the Eastern Sierras. This was my second time doing this hike and it is the best route I've ever taken. The trail started out flat than shortly angled up as it does all the way to Isberg Pass. We reached the Niche at around 11AM, about an hour after our departure. We ate lunch and did some swimming at Cora lakes until 1:30 and then continued up the long dusty trail. The rest of the day took us through forests, meadow, and then finally to our destination of Sadler Lake which is just below timber line. We gained 2500' and lost 100' over 9.5 miles of steady uphill. We camped on the South side of the lake.
We awoke to another cloudless day and after breaking camp started the steep climb to Isberg Pass. The views were great to the south of us and we passed many small lakes. The steepest part of the climb comes after the last lake. There are several switchbacks over granite blocks. Above us was the red hump if Isberg Peak. We reached Isberg Pass around noon and had lunch, then 5 of us headed up the south ridge of Isberg Peak with day packs.
We stayed to the East of the ridge until we got to the harder, steeper climbing where we crossed over to the West side of the ridge and scrammbled up class 2 rock to the red summit of Isberg Peak. We found no summit register, only a cairn. We enjoyed views of Ritter/Banner and the Minarets. We would be attempting Banner Peak and possibly Ritter that next Saturday (today was Monday) from our last camp at Thousand Island Lake. After enjoying the clear views, we headed back down the same way back to the pass. The peak took us about 1.5 hours roundtrip from Isberg Pass.
We put our packs back on and headed down the pass. We quickly lost the trail and took a shortcut directly downhill towards the large valley below us. It actually saved us from hiking all the way around the valley. It was up and down for the rest of the day until we got to the rim above the large Lyell fork of the Merced River Canyon. It's knee-achingly steep and when we finally got to the bottom, we took our boots off to ford the river. Luckily our campsite was right across the river. We set up camp in the exact same spot as we had 4 years earlier on the same hike. We gained 2650' and lost 2845' over 11 miles on day 2.
Continued with Vogelsang
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Yosemite National Park
