After a doing Gibbs and Dana, I took a rest day and then got my permit from the Forest Service office at Mono Lake for a one week trip into the Ansel Adams Wilderness to do some peak bagging in the Ritter Range.
I parked at the Silver Lake trailhead and headed up past Agnew lake which due to the snowmelt was being emptied by pumps over the top of the dam because the water level was too high. The Lee Vining newspaper said that it was due to restrictions because of the dams nearness to a fault line.
From there I went all the way around the northern side of Gem Lake, crossing Crest Creek on a log bridge and then reaching the bridge over Rush Creek where I decided to sit down and have breakfast.
Up until this point the trail had been easy to follow, at this point I put on my snow boots and followed the trail as best I could, and eventually I lost the trail and had to head across country. I was finally able to see Ritter and Banner and Glacier Pass from the ridge, right before crossing the Pacific Crest Trail.
From the ridge there was more cross country travel until I was able to find the trail and stay on it. I got to the north east side of Thousand Island Lake and hiked along the north side towards the pass. The sun cups were atrocious, and made for very had going.
I made it to the end of the lake and started up the pass. By this point it was starting to get dark and I was worn out from the suncups, so I set up camp on some dry rocks that were sticking up out of the snow next to some trees. I saw a weasel and took some pictures before getting to bed.
