On the way out, I took them down to a pond just north of Lembert, which used to be along the trail 20 years ago. You can still see where the trail ran through the trees. The wild scallions there weren't as good as I remembered them, but that might be because it was late in the season. They were tough and bland.
Dog Lake was unusually quiet due to the park's Covid restrictions. Only one other group was there. We took another off-trail shortcut after that just to get them used to it more. Delaney and Dingley weren't flowing on the surface, just pools. The creek that runs along the trail west of Ragged Peak to the junction was dry. Just lots of hot, dry hiking until the lake.
The clouds over Conness looked troubling, so I advised against that side-trip, especially since it was already about 3pm. A couple of us took naps while the rest went up to the next lake to look around, see the waterfall. It drizzled on their way back.
We had picked a campsite with nice views out towards Roosevelt Lake and Young Lake. From our campsite the next morning, we plunged down into the Conness valley and the brush that grows around the Young Lake outlet. My trip organizers took turns leading in this off-trail section, with me giving pointers.
We stopped at Conness Creek, the branch feeding out of Roosevelt Lake, to rehydrate. There's a rock slab there with great views over the Conness valley.
We crossed three branches of Alkali Creek, but they were all dry. Traveling down the westernmost branch, I was surprised to find a use trail out there. No idea where it was going to or from.
When we came over the ridge into Cold Canyon, I got sight of the Cold Fire, which I had already been smelling now and then. We hadn't heard about it when we got the permit, so I initially worried that we were walking right into a fire. But after getting a better view across the canyon, I could see that it was small, wasn't spreading, but was just above the use trail to Mattie.
After hanging out along Cold Creek to rehydrate, the group didn't seem to want to continue off-trail, so we skipped Mattie and headed to Glen Aulin, initially along the creek to avoid the climb to the PCT. That was for the best, since it was around 5pm. Cold Creek was mostly-stagnant pools. I had to clean my filter later that night.
There wasn't a lot of water in the river. We took the off-trail shortcut to the PCT on the way back, making our lunch stop where the climbers' route ends north of Pothole.
I think these guys had enough hiking by the time that we got back to the meadow, so there was much rejoicing when we could see our car in the distance.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2021 09:51PM by Sierra Miguel.
