Northwest Yosemite Trip Report: Part 2

[Part 1]

I woke up Saturday in a good mood. It wasn't just the bright clear morning. Friday had been a long slog through largely uninteresting country; today would be a couple of miles of interesting cross country followed by a day hike to Nance Peak--exactly the sort of thing I came to the mountains for in the first place.

I got packed and out of camp by 6:15. I headed ESE over a granite ridgelet, and found exactly the right gully (short jog south, then double back north) east of the north end of the lake. The gully led to a lovely shallow valley of flattish granite slabs, small tarns, and intermittent forest--reminiscent of Bench Canyon, but with granite domes instead of high peaks.



Easy slabs and ramps took me over a low divide and towards the lakes at the head of Bartlett Creek. I traversed south past the two lakes, then cut east close to the base of the dome west of Little Bear Lake.

It was easy, open slabs up to the divide, then down a series of slightly brushy mini-drainages (bearing mostly left) to the west shore of Spotted Fawn Lake. I got in at about 8:05, and picked out a campsite on slabs above the lake.



One thing annoyed me: all day long the sky was full of contrails. Tons of them. Not exactly conducive to the feeling of wilderness, if you know what I mean. I hadn't seen this in Kings Canyon; I wondered if there were just that many more flights over Yosemite, or if it was just the current weather conditions. It may have been both, but it was definitely the latter: the next day, the skies were (happily) largely contrail-free.

I had planned to get to camp early so I would have plenty of time to rest and then do my dayhike up Nance Peak. As it turned out, I was a lot earlier than I expected, and still in the mood for travel, so I ended up setting out after maybe 45 minutes at the lake. In retrospect, this was probably unwise...but I was keen to explore at that point.

If you look at the map, the easiest way appears to be around the south shore of Spotted Fawn and then straight up not-too-steep slopes from there. Unfortunately, the way south appeared to be blocked by cliffs and dense brush. That meant I had to take a more convoluted and difficult way up, crossing a couple of steepish ridgelines. Good thing I was getting an early start, I thought.

So I crossed the slabs northwest of the lake to the valley to the north. I could see several ramps up to the ridgeline, but it was all brush at the base; still, I chose the second ramp from the right as the most promising way up. Getting there...well, first I had to get through some low-lying brushy stuff (not too bad), then it was a climb over big-block talus choked with manzanita--always a good time. Once I hoisted myself onto the ramp it was smooth sailing, but I vowed to find a return route that would avoid the brush.

Ha! But I get ahead of myself.

From the ridgeline it was easy for a ways: just angle left down gentle slabs and angle right up equally gentle slabs to a wooded bench on the opposite side of the valley. From here I found a good place to cross the Inferno Lakes outlet stream (just before it drops steeply); it wasn't a difficult crossing, but I was starting to get tired at this point, and in my tiredness had begun to exaggerate every obstacle (it probably would be dicey with higher water, though). This is the point at which I really began to regret not having taken a longer rest in camp before setting out on my dayhike.

I wound my way (some brush) to the large flat (and very marshy) valley to the south (more brush). Through here, I had to pick my route very carefully to avoid the swampiest parts. Once through that valley (which took longer than you might imagine), it looked on the map like a fairly straightforward slope up to the ridgeline. Instead, it was yet another labyrinthine complex of granite gullies and ridgelets.



After climbing through this for a while, and starting to feel the kind of exhaustion that makes me clumsy and error-prone, and discouraged at the distance remaining after two hours of thrashing through various obstacles, I decided that rather than try to make Nance Peak I would traverse over to the ridgeline; at least I would get the view into Kendrick Canyon and beyond. This went fairly well, and without any further trouble I hit the ridgeline just above the 8,000'+ saddle.



From here, I could look southeast down into the canyon Lou and I had explored two years ago...



...and northwest toward Emigrant Wilderness. I lingered for about 20 minutes, enjoying the view, then started back.

The way back was mostly uneventful, despite my reverse-route Alzheimer's...until I got to that first ridge. I had vowed to find some other way down besides that brushy hell I had come up, and from the top I thought it looked better further north on the ridge, so I angled toward the north end of the ridge. I found a nice low-angled ramp on the other side, followed it down...and it ended in a cliff. I checked out the fissure on one side of the ramp, but there was big block talus obstructing the lower end. I checked out a couple more ramps, and they all ended in cliffs.

Finally, I saw a ramp that looked like it ended in just garden-variety brushy stuff. I followed it down, and got much further before it ended in a cliff. Fortunately, there was a fissue I was able to ever-so-carefully ease myself into, and that took me to about 50' of brush-covered small talus--for which, believe me, I was thankful.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in camp, reading. For happy hour--at 5:00 pm, by arrangement with my non-backpacking girlfriend--I had Myers and Crystal Light, which is really not bad if you're backpacking and probably pretty grim if you aren't, plus seeded crackers with black olive paste (good stuff--it comes in tubes, available at Rainbow and other places).

That night I slept out on a slab overlooking the lake--a bedroom with a view.

Part 3
Part 4