High Trail to Thousand Island Lake: Day 1

Star standing at the entrance to the Ansel Adams wilderness, less than one mile into our backpacking adventure. A shuttle bus dropped us off at Agnew Meadows, and at this point we are in the middle of 17 switchbacks headed up the High Trail (part of the Pacific Crest Trail).









After navigating the switchbacks, we began a gentle ascent through beautiful meadows along the High Trail.

At about 4 miles, we reached a vantage point of the Ansel Adams Wilderness with our destination being the base of Banner Peak in the upper right corner.























At about 7.5 miles we reached the outlet waters of Thousand Island Lake.





After 8 hours, we reached our destination, a cold and very windy Thousand Island Lake. We continued for over a mile along the north shoreline until finding a campsite. There appeared to be only four other tents set up with six other people camping in the area. All total, we hiked about 9.5 miles on day one.


It's difficult to believe such a cold place exists on July 18th in California.