August 22-26, 2003
Photography & Text by Bernie

Trip Organizer: Bernie (N6FN)

      Leaving the Saddlebag Lake trailhead, which is at 10,000 feet, we hiked along the south west shore of Saddlebag Lake and made our first camp at the far end of Greenstone Lake.  

In the evening after setting up camp at Greenstone Lake we broke into separate groups.  Some went fishing, others went exploring around the area.

The next we decided to day hike to the Conness Lakes.  A short ways from our camp we found a worn "use" trail along the stream coming down from the lakes above.   Following along the trail we passed a sign indicating we were entering the Hall Natural Area -- no overnight camping is allowed within its boundary.   

Hiking along we noted many trout scurrying away as they detected our passing.   Later in the evening catch & release fly-fishing along this section of the stream would prove very productive.

To reach the Conness Lakes it is necessary to climb a large granite bench with a spectacular 100ft water fall cascading down its face.

To the right, our first campsite was located in the dense timbered area that can be seen to the right of Stan's head.

  Fly-fishing was slow at the Conness Lakes so Joe Wolzen and Bernie decided to climb to the Conness Glacier.  Our intent was to head towards a notch in the ridge, just above the glacier, which would let us look over to some of the high country located within Yosemite National Park.  Unknown to us, Stan who had been exploring the area as we were trying our luck fishing also decided to climb to the glacier.

   Notice the difference in the colors of the five Conness Lakes in the picture below.  The two dark lakes behind Joe are clear water.  The three turquoise appearing lakes going from left to right contain glacial melt water from the Conness Glacier.  The "milky" turquoise color is typical of lakes fed by glacial runoff.

In the picture above, notice the granite rubble making up the glacial moraine at the base of the glacier.  To reach the glacier, we stayed on the solid granite to the right of the moraine and left of the snow field.  We then traversed left, above most of the moraine to reach the glacier.  The picture of Joe and the Conness Lakes (above and to the right) was taken part way up the solid granite section of our route.

The day following our Conness Lake and Glacier adventures, we broke camp and hiked a couple of miles to our next destination -- Saddlebag Lake.

Scouting around a bit we set up camp along a small lake between Cascade and Saddlebag Lakes.   Afterwards we broke up and spent the afternoon either exploring the area or fishing.  Joe and John fished the area fairly hard with moderate success.  For myself the fly-fishing was a bit spotty, some areas being quite productive and others yielding very little.  While not required, all of our fishing was barbless hook, catch and release.

Stan and Al took off to investigate some very large blocks of ice which apparently had fallen off one of the cliffs near North Peak.  In their explorations they also found the remains of a very old wooden sled.

The following day, Al, Stan and Bernie made a large loop trip around a small hill/mountain in the center of the valley.  We visited "Z" Lake, which is shaped a bit like the letter "Z".  Fishing was moderately good for good sized trout in this lake.

Continuing north-east over the ridge we descended onto the main trail connecting Saddlebag Lake to Lundy Pass.  Here we detoured to have lunch at Hummingbird Lake.

Continuing on, we followed the main trail to Odell Lake.  At this point things went a bit awry.  Al and I started angling up the side of the mountain intending to cross over to Twin Lake and Shamrock Lake.  But Stan thought there was an easier way and continued down the trail.  The problem with the trail was that it was heading down hill in the wrong direction. 

Stan had fully intended to rejoin us, but despite occasional radio contacts we would not see Stan again until much later in the day.  The main problem preventing Stan from rejoining us was difficult terrain consisting of lots of loose rock and steep ravines.  However, even though we were traveling cross-country, where Al and I were hiking the terrain was not particularly difficult.  For Stan however, it was a different story.

Crossing over the mountain, Al and I visited Twin Lake, which is in a deep depression completely surrounded by football and larger sized orange / red rocks.

While at Twin Lake we encountered one of the very few other people we would see that day.  A fisherman had day hiked in from Saddlebag Lake to fly-fish the lake.

As we descended the ridge to Shamrock Lake, Al and I spotted Stan at a great distance making his way back to camp.  After skirting the edge of Shamrock Lake, Al and I picked up the main trail leading from Lundy Pass back to Steelhead Lake, near where we had started from.

We all had a good day.  On his way back Stan was so engrossed with the scenery that he missed the turnoff to our campsite and ended up hiking back to our first camping location.  Once there he quickly realized his mistake and used his GPS to locate our camp at Steelhead Lake.

That night it rained quite a bit, and Al and Stan's tents got some water in them.  On the way back to the trail head, the following morning, it started raining again and we were quite soaked by the time we got back to the truck.

By my count, we visited 17 lakes on this trip.  A great time was had by all!