Terrible sign on the road on the way up. In the dark, I couldn't even tell it was a sign until I had nearly passed it. And it's at a total T in the road. Go left.
Friday 3 August ... Deborah had sent along care packages for each of us: a bandana with sunscreen wipes, mosquito repellent wipes, a bunch of trail mix, and a little flashlight. Mary took a "before" photo of the five of us, all ready to run away from home. (Left to right: Ben, Heather, me, Lindsay, Mark) Note the lack of injuries of any kind between my knees and my socks.
Nice waning gibbous moon through the trees at camp. Compare with the less-than-half-moon just a couple of days later
Friday morning light reflecting off of the reservoir, near camp
Even here at camp, one can already see signs of how dry this summer has been.
One dead tree
More of Cherry Lake
Nicely symmetric manzanita, still near camp
Heather and Lindsay, getting their packs ready
Near the trailhead, there had been a fire not too long ago. Looked like it might have been a prescribed burn
80% of the intrepid trekkers, at the trailhead
Nice moss on a cedar tree
Heather and Lindsay, during the initial climb
Lots of yellow leaves on the manzanita
Some blue and some yellow wildflowers
I think this nice blue/purple wildflower is a blue penstemon
Shortly after the initial ~600 foot climb, we reached the Emigrant Wilderness Boundary (or maybe was it the Wilderness / Yosemite boundary?)
Ben found some more wildflowers
Ben likes climbing on rocks. Behind him, we see the valley we'll traverse for the rest of the day, on our way to Kibbie Lake.
Manzanitas in bloom
More of the cool purplish penstemon
First sighting of some Indian Paintbrush
There were a few butterflies, this is the only one that would pose for me. Later research convinces me that it's some kind of Fritillary, though I can't decide from the tiny photos on the web, among the Western Meadow Fritillary, the Atlantis Fritillary, and the Northwestern Fritillary. Cool, anyway.
Lots of dry trees — looks like they'd go up fast if there were a fire in this area
I think this sedge is a variety of streptanthus, also called "jewel flower"
Cool pink puffball flowers to identify. Maybe a "naked eriogonum", although a Google Image search only shows white flowers, while my Peterson Field Guide ("Pacific States Wildflowers") lists them under the pink section. At full size, this photo brought out detail that I had not noticed in person — that each puffball looks like it contains many very tiny but normal-looking flowers.
We finally start to see some granite, and more dry dead trees
Ben and Heather and some dryish ferns
Mark, Heather, and almost-Ben, walking past some paintbrush and some Queen Anne's lace
Did I mention that Ben likes to climb on rocks?
Ben and Lindsay and rock
Heather and Lindsay and rock
Did I mention ... ?
This is the "cave" you go through, then climb up to the left, in order to get on top of the rock in the past few and the next picture
Heather and Lindsay, with Ben in the background if you look carefully. You can get a hint here about just how much Ben's toe was bothering him
Ah, we arrive at Kibbie Lake. Most of the hike this day has been in the high 80's or low 90's, so the water was a welcome sight
We went around to the left, and took a long break
The lake is very shallow at this end, and the water is very warm. We played and waded around ...
... and filtered some water (note Ben and Mark each have a filter in this pic)
Ben and Mark still thinking about filtering
Heather and Lindsay had gone over and explored that little island
Ben was testing just how quickly his zip-off-at-the-knees pants would dry
I think he got in a little deeper than he had intended
A pretty part of Kibbie Lake
There were some ducks on the lake
Heading up along the west side of Kibbie Lake, you can see some of the rounded knobs that form the east side of the lake
Tough spot to make a life
Easy hiking on these flat granite slabs
A sharp granite split rock
A glacial erratic
More granite slabs, near where we camped Friday night.
Ben on a rock, in a rare pensive mood
Lindsay and Heather decided to make a mattress of pine needles. Heather reported the next morning that they were so loud every time she'd move, that they kept her awake
Friday night's camp — Mark's tent; and Heather and Lindsay's tent. Ben and I slept under the stars, on a groundcloth. Saw lots of shooting stars and satellites
View across Kibbie Lake shows the two nice-looking valleys that come down to its east side. They didn't look easy to get to, though. My original plan had been to ascend one of them, to Many Island Lake.
Rocks and trees near camp
Rocks and trees near camp, near sunset
The granite dome at the north end of Kibbie Lake. We ended up climbing up the drainage just west of it, which leads very directly towards Styx Pass
At the knee of this ridge, there's a lumpy
formation that looked like some kind of moose
or yak or something.
Maybe you had to be there.
Heather and Lindsay, after dinner