Fishing the JMT 2018
Day 3 – August 2, 2018
Rosalie Lake to Mammoth Lakes
This morning, I woke up at Rosalie Lake to a considerable amount of wildfire smoke in the air. The haze hung thick over the lake and swallowed the trees with grey. Unless the smoke cleared up by late morning today, I had already told myself last night that I would opt to bail out at Shadow Lake and catch the shuttle bus back up to Mammoth Lakes at Agnew Meadows.
After the climb out of Rosalie Lake and down to Shadow Lake, the smoke levels were at their worst. The view of Shadow Lake from the switchbacks was where I decided to call and end to this hike and head back to Mammoth Lakes with an alternate plan – to fish for 3 more days at area lakes around the Mammoth area.
At the inlet to Shadow Lake at the wooden footbridge, I set foot on the last few feet of John Muir Trail that I hadn’t finished in previous years. It was a joy and a relief to officially finish the trail.
Exiting at Shadow Lake, I descend a steep canyon that follows along the outlet of the lake and meets up in the valley with the South Fork of the San Joaquin River. This short stretch touches the Pacific Crest Trail for a couple miles before I split east and head uphill to Agnew Meadows to flag down a Red’s Meadow shuttle bus and get some town food.
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After hiking on the John Muir Trail over a 3 year span since 2015, I decided to go back to a favorite area of the trail to fish in some of the trout-rich alpine lakes and streams. I also was back to close an 11.5 mile gap that I bypassed in 2015, completing the section between Shadow Lake and Red’s Meadow. The plan was to hike for 6 days from Mammoth Lakes to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park, but the wildfire smoke greatly increased on day 2 and I made the decision to exit the trail on day 3 at Shadow Lake. I took advantage of the next 3 days by hiking into local lakes just above Mammoth and still getting a chance to fish for the rest of my time off.
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