Here is a shot of Shadow Lake taken a couple of hours in to the hike
I was expecting a larger elevation on the trail a mile before the lake but it really wasn't that bad at all - Took me six hours to get there (with backpack) and the fish were rising in the lake when I arrived around 1PM
I tried to fish the lake later in the afternoon but the wind wouldn't allow me to get my line out far enough ( I still need to learn how to double haul) I could see the fish were deep anyway so I went to the outlet which was close by and found a hole that I hit on with every cast - I caught more fish than I could count (catch and release)
Here is a hybrid golden I caught, also caught a rainbow and many, many brook - Missed the slam that day by one brown
Since I was the first to arrive at the lake that day, I set up camp at the first allowable camping spot about 1/2 along the lake and 30 yards out - There was noone else in sight even though I knew others were further down the lake - I had a few visits from bears that night but they didn't even touch my bear canister - Here is a picture of the lake the next morning
My primary mission was to just get to the lake and fish it so that accomplished, I took the John Muir Trail out on the way back to Agnew Meadows passing by Emerald, Ruby, Garnet and Shadow Lake - This trail had many people and one very large group but was still private enough for me to thoroughly enjoy the hike - everyone was very nice on the trail
Garnet Lake - I really like the lines in the mountains coming down to the lake
Shadow Lake on the way out (Out of shape with a pack it took me 8 hours to get back using this trail)
This was not that long of a hike really for backpacking but the sceneray was stunning - and I imaging the traffic is much better in September - I'm glad I went - If I do this agin, I think I will start at Tuolomne - over Donahue Pass - down to the lake.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/2011 09:22AM by SoCalCPA.
