We were up at 6:15 am, a quick breakfast, then up to the lake. Lots of fish. All small. We ended up with six guppies that swallowed the hook so far we couldn't release them. We strolled back to camp, put the fish in our "fish bag" (a gallon sized ziplock) and stowed them in my pack.
We quickly reached Minaret Lake. Craig's lure had gotten hooked in his pack. While he extricated it, I hooked 5 fish in 7 casts, keeping one. By the time he was ready, the fish had disappeared.
We climbed up to Cecile Lake. Here we met two kids that had been climbing. While out for the day the wind had blown their tent into the lake, shredding it in the process. Some kind soul had pulled it from the lake, along with their sleeping bags and other gear in the tent and had laid it out to dry with rocks on them to keep them from blowing away again.
We descended to Iceberg Lake, then down close to Ediza before we started the climb up toward Nydiver Lakes. We stopped in the shade of a thicket of Lodgepole Pines beside a cascading stream for lunch before we began the 1000'+ climb to Whitebark Pass above Nydiver Lakes.
The route traverses above Garnet Lake and Thousand Island Lake, crossing two passes to do so.
It was now decision time. Do we continue on, climbing over 11,200' Glacier Pass and camp on the west side of the range, or save the climb for morning and camp on the east side of the pass. It was nearly 3:30 pm, and although we had said just yesterday that stopping by 3:30 pm was our goal, we decided to climb over the pass to the west side, a nice sunset being our motivation. Climbing the pass was straightforward, just a lot of meadow climbing and boulder hopping. However, descending the west side is tricky and magnificent. Two lakes, Catherine and an unnamed smaller one sit right at the pass. The pass lies at the foot of spectacular mountains Ritter and Banner, both 13,000+ footers. The route follows the outlet of Catherine that flows into the other lake that then begins a series of cascades over glacial scoured and polished granitic bedrock. Pockets of flowers and grasses are tucked in next to waterfalls and swift courses of the stream as it tumbles downward into the North Fork of the San Jochin River valley, 4000' below. The tricky part is two cliffs, one 300' high and one 500' high that the stream cascades over, yet leaves no place for a traveler to descend. You have to traverse way to the right, like a quarter to half mile before you come to an angling valley that delivers you to the base of the cliffs. We missed the angling valley and ended up down climbing two very large and very steep cliffs. Both had ample hand and footholds so that even with our full packs we felt secure, but looking down the two hundred foot cliff and descending it made for a fun and exciting route.
By the time we reached the bottom and worked our way through the meadows down to a cozy stand of Lodgepole pines it was well after 6:00 pm and we were beat. I had remembered this place from 2010 and thought it would be an awesome place to camp, right next to the rushing stream, tucked into the trees.
We fried up our fish from the morning catch, cooked dinner and did our nightly chores and were soon fast asleep.
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