North-East Lilttle Loop.

On August 4th I was able to make it up to Yosemite for a quick backpacking trip in the North(ish)-East area of Yosemite. I brought along a first-time backpacker who had been to Yosemite Valley a couple times prior, but had only done day hikes out of the Valley. It was a nice change of pace as I have the tendency to eat trail, and forget to slow down and really enjoy the finer points of relaxation the trail has to offer. Our route started at the stables near Lembert Dome and headed to Young Lakes (Via Dog Lakes). We spent our first night at the middle Young Lake. It was a small lake, but it had beautiful views of Ragged Peak.

Pics From Day 1:



This is a photo of the Cathedral Range from on the trail between Dog and Young Lakes.



Ragged Peak from the Lower Young Lake



Middle Young Lake in the evening light.

Pics From day 2:

On Day two we hiked form Middle to the Upper Young lake and had breakfast. After breakfast we hiked from Upper Young Lake to Roosevelt Lake, up and over the pass between Sheep Peak and North Peak, and down to Upper McCabe Lake.







Middle Young Lake in the morning light.




Upper Young Lake




Mt. Conness from meadow below and between White Mtn and Conness.



Roosevelt Lake and Sheep Peak



Roosevelt Lake from it's outlet looking towards the pass between White and Sheep (our route).
Roosevelt lake had gillnets strung across about every 20 yards for it's entire length. We asked a ranger on our exit and he had mentioned something about terminating the fish population so that the Yellow-Legged Mountain Frog can survive. From what I read after, the YL Mountain Frog isn't known to live at the altitude, nor has it been found in Yosemite for quite some time. Any further information on this would be appreciated. The gillnets were working...



Roosevelt from about half way up the pass.



Conness from same location.



Looking down on Upper McCabe lake and our route from the pass between White and Sheep.



Shepherd Crest



Sunset from Upper McCabe--from near our campsite on the peninsula.

Photos from Day 3:

Day three we hiked to the Upper McCabe outlet then over to middle and lower McCabe lakes before joining the trail towards Glen Aulin via Cold Canyon.



Looking back at Upper McCabe from near outlet.



Middle McCabe



Lower McCabe.

Sorry I didn't have time for more pics or a longer write-up. Hope the pics are worthwhile.

Tanks to you and everyone else for taking the time and effort to do these.
They are always worthwhile. Much appreciated.

There are definitely frogs at that high elevation. Seen tadpoles in the ponds to the west of Roosevelt.
Surprised it took them this long to do this at Roosevelt. They did Virginia and Middle McCabe years ago.
There were a zillion tadpoles at 9774 up out Stubblefield (I posted a photo of them earlier this yr).
Not having fish in some of the lakes isn't all that bad. Even with some removed... there's still plenty of
lakes with fish in them.
(Lower McCabe was left as is, for example... and Mattie was left as is, another example)

Thanks for posting

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Cantwait -- The gillnets simply entangle the trout and they die. At least that is what it looked like they did.

Katy-- Thanks for the information. Here is more information regarding the Yellow-Legged Mountain Frog and the NPS's restoration of naturally fishless lakes for anyone who might be interested.

Nice report.

What do they do with the fish they catch? Kill em and eat em? Relocate them?

Thanks for the trip report.

The Mountain Yellow Legged Frog is now listed as an endangered species. The remote high altitude lakes of Yosemite are some of the only places this frog can still be found. More info here.

Quote
Torero14

Sorry I didn't have time for more pics or a longer write-up. Hope the pics are worthwhile.

Those were plenty of photos and they were very worthwhile and the write-up was perfectly fine too.

You wrote up a very nice report about your backpacking trip. Thanks for posting it and the photos.

I for one can never get tired at looking at photos of Yosemite, especially places that are rarely photographed like most of the places you visited on your backpacking trip.

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Thanks for sharing your TR, love it! Looks like a great trip, with solid lakeside scenery and expansive views. I love seeing the pics and following along on a map, so enjoyable