Lyell Canyon to Vogelsang Lake Extravaganza

Day 1

Armed with a 1 lb bag of gummy bears, Aaron, Emily, and James set off to meet Dr. Maya, Dr. Ellen, future Dr. Nathan, Andrew, and Evan for a backpacking extravaganza in Yosemite. The first stop was at the Big, Oak Flat ranger station to pick up wilderness permits. At the station, the rangers told them that there was an active bear in Lyell Canyon right by where they were planning to camp that night 😳. The group remained undeterred knowing that James’ crinkly sleeping pad would scare away any unwanted nighttime visitors.

The two groups met up at the wilderness center and after doing a quick check for pack weights, they set off through the meadow towards Lyell Canyon. 

Initial pack weights:

• James 31
• Aaron 32
• Emily 22
• Nathan and Evan 34
• Ellen 28
• Maya 28
• Andrew 29

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The hike through Lyell Canyon was idyllic and leisurely. The group came to a river bend where they took a break for some light fishing and sunbathing. They pressed ahead to the junction of Lyell Canyon and the trail to Ireland Lake and set up camp.

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At camp, they busted out the luxury goods: a loaf of sourdough, 30 ft of twinkling lights, and a massage gun. There was a pre-dinner game of Wavelength where it was determined that no one is on the same wavelength as Aaron and that henna tattoos fall more on the side of temporary on the scale of temporary to permanent.  

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For dinner Andrew had chicken teriyaki; Aaron, Emily, and James had pasta with prosciutto and dried zucchini and peppers; Maya had potatoes; Ellen had hummus and pita; Nathan and Evan had Costco rice.

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The night ended with some star gazing and everyone heading to bed to be well rested for the next day.

James’ gummy bears remaining: 0.5 lb

Day 2

Day 2 broke to the sounds of James’ crinkly sleeping pad. It had done its duty and scared away bears throughout the night. Following tradition, guru Maya led a session of morning rock yoga and Nathan contributed some additional back stretches. Andrew had a meditation session while Evan explored the creek and bagged his first trout of the trip. 

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Now properly limbered up and relaxed, the group started the trek towards the junction to Ireland Lake. The initial stretch was an all uphill slog covering around 2000 ft of elevation in a little over a mile and a half. Ellen and James raced ahead only for James to wander off the trail and have to backtrack half a mile to find his way back. As the rest of the group was working their way up, they ran into a group of hikers coming from Ireland Lake. The hikers reported that the fishing there was excellent and that was all the motivation needed to power through the last bit of uphill and reach the junction to Ireland Lake.

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The group took a quick break for lunch and some light sunbathing and then it was off to Ireland Lake! After another section of uphill, they popped out into a giant meadow that felt like being at the top of the world. At the end of the meadow, Lake Ireland came into sight looking sparkly and majestic. They made their way to the right of the lake and found a small campsite perched perilously on the edge of a cliff. The initial assessment: beautiful lake, crappy campsite, very windy.

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After dropping their packs at the sketchy campsite, Andrew, Maya, and Ellen decided to go for a swim. Brr. Deciding not to go into the freezing cold water, Nathan, Emily, Aaron and Evan decided to explore further to the left of the lake and do some fishing on the way. Despite the promises of fish from the group of hikers, Lake Ireland was not looking promising. As they worked their way down, there were zero bites and no fish seen in the crystal clear waters. There were, however, lots of fat marmots in the meadow surrounding the lake.   

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Aaron and Emily decided to explore a little further and stumbled upon a series of smaller lakes that were offshoots from Ireland lake. In the inlets they could see small trout and the promise of fish was looking up! Would they be able to catch Emily’s first fish? Yes! After a couple of frustrating attempts, and Aaron catching a fish on the first cast while trying to demonstrate the proper technique, Emily caught her first fish! Mission accomplished!

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Aaron, Nathan, and Evan proceeded to fish the small lakes and caught a ton of small brook trout. Unfortunately they were all too small to keep. Exploring a little more they found a much nicer campsite right before the sun was about to go down and the group double timed back to the old site so they could move all the gear and not have to worry about rolling over the side of a cliff in the middle of the night. 

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That night the stars came out in full force. There were lots of shooting stars, the milky way was visible, and lots of stars were misidentified as being parts of Orion’s Belt. A satisfying end to the day.

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James’ gummy bears remaining: 0.25 lbs

Day 3

Woken up by a caucus of noisy birds, day 3 started out by spreading out and finding sunny rocks for yoga and breakfast. This time, Maya, Nathan, and Aaron took turns leading morning yoga with Aaron introducing them to the bumblebee bee pose. While doing yoga, Nathan came across a lost mug that sounded like it had a treasure inside. Upon opening it, the treasure turned out to be a small rock.

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Having empirically proved that oatmeal (and gummy bears) taste better when eaten on a sunny rock, the group packed up to head off to their next destination. When moving to the new campsite the previous day, the group had strayed pretty far off the trail. The group set off in the general direction of the trail and came to a point with a small valley. Aaron and Nathan decided to cut through the valley while Maya led the rest of the crew around the rim of the valley. Aaron and Nathan’s trail finding skills turned out to be superior as they popped out onto trail first.  

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The rest of the hike back to the junction was uneventful and from there they set off to Evelyn Lake. After running across a couple decoy lakes on the way, they arrived at the lake. It turned out to be very windy and quite chilly, so the group decided to press on after a quick lunch. Nathan and Evan decided to stay behind and fish the lake for a bit while the rest headed to the backpackers camp at Lake Vogelsang. Staying behind proved to be the right decision and they caught a bunch of big trout!

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The hike down to Vogelsang was a nice descent along a gentle gradient that passed through lots of meadows. The crew made it to the backpackers camp around 3 and then decided to take a side trip to summit Vogelsang peak. Hooked on catching big fish, Evan decided to head back to Evelyn Lake to try his luck some more while Emily decided to stay at camp to finish her book “The Elephant Vanishes”. 

Going to Vogelsang turned out to be a trek. After a slog up to the junction to Vogelsang Pass, they ran into a large rock scramble. At this point Aaron and Andrew split off in the wrong direction before bailing after hitting a sketchy part of the scramble. Maya, Ellen, Nathan, and James pressed onward, determined to celebrate with pop tarts on the peak and in James case, his last party hat gummy bear. 

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Dr. Maya, the intrepid expedition leader, successfully led the crew through the rock scramble and upwards to the peak. They reached the final steep section to the peak where James bowed out, waiting for them at the bottom. Maya mountain goated her way up with Ellen and Nathan in tow as they successfully summited the peak. Having overcome his fear of heights to make it to the top, Nathan decided to not push it and parked himself on a rock while Maya and Ellen ventured out to the edge for some pictures. The sun was starting to set as they made their way back to camp with Nathan’s ginger chews coming in clutch to power them through. On the way back, Nathan stopped to fish Vogelsang Lake where he caught his first goldbow (golden and rainbow trout hybrid). 

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In the meanwhile, after having bailed early on the summit, Aaron and Andrew had a mini photoshoot on meditation rock. They made it back to camp at the same time as Evan who had caught a keeper at Evelyn and had brought it back for dinner. Under the instruction of Nathan, Evan cleaned and gutted the fish for the first time. It was only after finishing that Nathan revealed he had never actually done it himself. Aaron disposed of the fish guts by burying them under a rock. Back at camp they cooked the trout using Maya’s spice mix. Yum! 

Other dinner entrees included, potatoes with purple carrots, lentil pasta, curry with split peas, chickpeas and spinach. For dessert they made trail tiramisu pudding and mango with coconut milk. Needing to replenish calories after their strenuous summit, Ellen and James went to town on Aaron’s snacks. After the obligatory star gazing, everyone went to bed.

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Gummy bears remaining: James finished his and continued to finish Aaron’s

Day 4

The last day started in the usual fashion, waking up and sitting in the sun. After packing up and taking a group photo, they headed back on the long descent back to the car. The hike back was uneventful. Ellen and James powered forward while everyone else followed in their wake. Half a mile from the parking lot, they got stopped by a ranger to check their permits. Being responsible backpackers they had everything in order, but they wondered what would happen if they didn’t have permits and if people got taken to Yosemite jail.

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After digging deep and pushing through the last bit, they made it back to the car. The first stop was at the general store for some victory gatorade. On the way back they stopped at Iron Door Saloon for lunch and handing out commemorative stickers Maya designed and awarding trip superlatives. A great end to a successful trip!

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Trip Awards and Superlatives 

Backpacking Book Club: Emily & Ellen

Best Luxury Items (theragun, icy hot, face wipes, lantern, fanny pack with easily accessible hand sanitizer): Andrew

Trout Triple (brook, rainbow, and goldbow): Evan & Nathan

Most Time Spent Waiting for Others to Catch Up: Ellen (in sandals)

Most Gummy Bears Eaten: James

Freshest Appearance at the End of the Trip: Nathan 

Most Sun Rays Deflected via Hat: Andrew

Best Meal: trout with Maya’s secret spice mix 

Most Successful Peak Summits Lead: Maya (50% made it to top)

Bougie Pillows Carried: James

Largest Backlog of Trip Reports to Write: Aaron