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As always - hiking the Sierra Nevada mountains and lakes provide us with amazing views and beautiful trails. We started this hike at the Silver Lake trailhead, a short distance from the Village of June Lake. The trail ascends immediately, reaching Agnew Lake, from which we continued to Clark Lakes, and ending at 1000 Island Lake at the base of Mount Davis and Munt Ritter and Minarets. where glaciers still exist. The weather was magnificent and there were many backpackers planning to camp near 1000 Island Lake (aka "1000 Tents Lake" as one of them joked to me). I would rate this hike as difficult, mainly due to the long climb, and due to some of the trails not being maintained where we walked on somewhat unstable areas with scree. My stats (Using GAIA GPS) were 15.5 miles and 3,645 Ft of total ascent (out and back hike). Part of the hike was actually on a portion of the PCT!
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I recommend this trail as a nice way to return to Agnew Meadows from Thousand Island lake. It follows the river for the most part and has lots of tree coverage. There are numerous water falls to enjoy.
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This is a rugged hike on a use trail starting near Thousand Island lake. We did this hike in September and had to use crampons and ice axes to cross a sizable snow field. Along the way we passed boulder fields and lush sub alpine meadows filled with streams and wildflowers.
Two of us continued on to summit Mt. Ritter via the SW route. They returned to camp at 9pm after starting at 6am.
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This is a beautiful hike, but mosquitos are hatching so be prepared and have proper protection ( head net, deet, ect). There is some snow around 10000 ft. and the trail will be wet in areas.
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I wrote the description above. It gets 4 stars because it's just a great trip that I've done twice. It loses 1 star only because you have to use the shuttle system at Mammoth and because of the distance. I don't know why the track shows what it does. Here's mine: https://www.gaiagps.com/public/6UaTRoudg7dkPL7mOkkOYSZF . Do note that I recorded this route leaving, so it goes from Iva Bell to the trailhead. Distance is 12ish miles with about 2,000 ft gain/loss on the round trip.
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We made this as a first leg of a backpacking trip to the Iva Bell hotsprings. From the Rainbow Falls trailhead all the way down to the valley floor. As soon as the final descent brings down to the Fish Creek, there is a lot of flat relatively open space that works great for making camp. From that location, another 4 miles along the Fish Creek Trail will bring to the hot springs area. The pools take some time to find them, there are use trails that run in the general direction of the pools. Moving up the slope one gets from one pool to the next but not necessarily in a straight line. The pools are warm; some are cleaner than others; they also vary by the quality of the bottom material. It is heavenly to soak in the warm relaxing water and gaze into the vast valley under the deep blue sky. The official trails are well marked and cross many streams. On a sunny dry day in late September, the trail was quite dusty to trod.The Iva Bell hotsprings area seems to be popular - there were at least 3 camping parties and more passing through.
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