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We knew we had a long day ahead, so we got an early start, waking up
around 6:30am. We knew it was only about 10 miles, but the off-trail
portion would make it slow going (even though it was mostly downhill).
We left camp around 8:30am, having had much more sleep than the previous
night. We could still hear the wind winding up on Granite Dome, and
heading to us every few minutes last night, but instead of shaking the
tent, we got nothing. Those trees really helped.
We headed back toward Ridge Lake, then veered left and headed toward the
first saddle. Along the way another group of backpackers passed us.
We reached the saddle without much problem, then started the trip down
to the creek.
Granite slopes between Iceland Lake and Ridge Lake
Back to the saddle
Lone tree at the saddle
We had a much better idea of where we were going now, and tried to avoid
the steepest parts as much we could. This sometimes meant zig-zagging
a bit to avoid the worst parts. So maybe our route was safer, but a bit
longer.
Sparse forest on the descent
Tree towering above others on on the descent
The only problem came near the end. We were approaching the place we
crossed the creek, but there was a granite structure in front of us that
prevented us from easily reaching it. We'd have to go around. Going
left seemed more direct, and that is the route we ended up taking, though
in retrospect it probably would have been better to go right. We ended up
having to navigate some steep granite and then a thick forest with downed
trees everywhere, though
we were able to reach the same crossing spot eventually.
Bugs eating a plant next to the creek crossing
Again, crossing Summit Creek wasn't a problem. We ended up crossing at
11am. I was feeling good about getting back to the car at a reasonable
time. But then the heat pounded us the rest of the day, and my trekking
poles had the problem of slipping (they'd shrink if I put too much force
on them), and this slowed us down a lot.
Relief Reservoir
We didn't stop a lot from here, but it ended up taking almost 5 hours to
go the nearly 8 miles from here to the parking lot. Sprinkled among the
downhill was over 700 feet of climbing, which didn't help.
Waterfalls leading to Summit Creek
Finally we made it back to the Kennedy Meadows resort area, where we
bought some sodas from the store before slogging the final three-quarters
of a mile to the parking lot. Still, it wasn't 4pm yet so we had time
to drive back to the Bay Area in time for fireworks (although we were too
tired to go out to watch them).
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