My start on Friday night was unusually late, especially for a mid-fall trip. I didn't hit the trail in Tuolumne Meadows until 9:30pm--long after sundown. The car's thermometer had read 37F. Surprisingly, I saw a few active headlamps near the cars parked by the Cathedral Lakes trailhead--either climbers returning late from their climbs, or those getting a late start. I was in no position to criticize.
The hike up Rafferty Creek was chilly, but once the climb after the junction began, I regretted having put on some extra layers at the car. The extra-long season had made the trail impossible to miss, even at night, although when I neared where I was planning to camp for the night, I had to double-check my location. The main difference from earlier in the year: Rafferty Creek was all but dry, so looking for a particular spot near the creek was more difficult at night. I did eventually find a nice flat slab of granite and wasted no time tossing out my sleeping bag, climbing in, and falling asleep.
The night had been cold, and my sleeping bag was covered with a thick layer of frost when I finally decided it was time to get moving. Unfortunately, the sun was still an hour or more from hitting me directly.
I enjoyed a large, hot cup of coffee, breakfast, and hot tea while the sun slowly illuminated the nearby mountains.
It became clear that waiting for the sun would take too long, so I packed up and walked to it; I was in its warmth within minutes. The stroll up the Rafferty trail was pleasant, especially with the warm sun. Soon I could see Fletcher and Vogelsang Peaks, which is about when I heard the advance party on the radio.
They were camped near Boothe Lake, which I headed towards for the second time this season--and, in fact, the second time ever.
It's been awhile, so I can't recall if it was pancakes or bacon they saved me for a second breakfast, which I consumed as they finished packing up their camp.
This was a pre-Trail Quest trip, so of course we took the Chick-On Direct route down to Emeric Lake.
Our route passed under the nice domes of "Choo-choo Ridge" (the divide between Fletcher Creek and Echo Lake) and through several nice meadows.
The locomotive of the choo-choo train is to the right...
Someday we will have to return to hike the Boothe Lake to Emeric Lake trail, but it will be hard to pass up our less-mapped route. Maybe we can work out a system where we get credit if we hike between the two endpoints of a trail segment...?
As we got closer to Emeric Lake, we encountered more and more open, smooth granite sloping toward the lake.
We stayed high, out of the trees, to experience every last bit of the open views before heading to the lake.
Eventually we could see the lake--and in the distance Mount Clark and some other country we'd visit in a few weeks.
The winds were picking up and blowing up-canyon, so we headed to the outlet of the lake to have lunch and inflate the floatilla. Soon enough, we were on the water, quickly heading back to the other side of the lake.
As a variation on the pack-cover sail, someone tried the umbrella sail that had been mentioned here. It seemed to work--perhaps a bit too well when strong gusts came up.
Starting at lunch, clouds had started to form. It took a bit longer than expected to find a suitable place to get out of our boats--the inlet shore was shallow and muddy. A storm was expected this evening, and once we were out of the water, we could look back on their forming over the Clark Range.
JKW and I stayed on the trail all the way to Evelyn Lake, while the Pink One of course took a more off-track route. Still, there's plenty of good stuff to see from the trail.
Just past Vogelsang, we saw several hikers battling the strong, cool winds. The weather was definitely changing.
We loaded up on water at Evelyn Lake since we knew that its outlet would probably be dry.
The clouds continued to build, and the wind didn't let up, but there was still no hint of the threatened snow.
Just below Evelyn Lake, we could see where we planned on stopping farther down the outlet creek.
We eventually found a campsite that offered a decent balance of flat ground and some protection from the wind. Of course, once we set up the tent and settled in for the night, the wind died down.
It was, in fact, snowing the next morning, but hardly any had accumulated on the ground. We took our time having a leisurely breakfast--we didn't have far to go to return to the trailhead, so we weren't in a rush.
The surrounding mountains had received just a light dusting of snow--it was hardly a factor as we hiked down alongside Rafferty Creek.
In early season, when Rafferty Creek is flowing, there is a nice waterfall where it joins the Evelyn Lake outlet; this waterfall was just a distant memory by now.
