Day 3: Shadow Lake Junction to Agnew Meadows

What a great night of sleep we had!  I love sleeping near running water.  The white noise is incredible.  No small creatures tried to get into our bags, so everyone did much better this time.

As we all get up and start talking over coffee, we decide that going to Rosalie Lake is not really what we want to do anymore.  We had a specific goal for this trip and that was to see Shadow Lake and the outlet from it that creates a beautiful waterfall.  A waterfall that we saw from across a canyon back in July of 2016 and vowed we would come back to someday.  Read about that story here.

We are having a nice easy morning.  There are 2 women who are camped above us that we see every now and then, but otherwise, no one else is camped in our area.

As I am making my way back to camp from doing some business, I slip on a granite boulder and fall hard on my left butt cheek and left hand.  I need a minute to regroup myself.  I am soo mad that I was so careless.   My thoughts were elsewhere and I was feeling all light to my step.  What a big mistake.  I am hobbling back over to camp and tell the guys what happened.  My back is spasming and I have to keep walking around to deal with the pain.  We finish packing up and as I grab my pack to put it on my back, I am seized with pain.  Noooooooo!!!!!  I put the pack down and to try to stop crying, I walk away and tell myself to get a grip and hold it together.   We find the Advil and I take 4.  Cordlan helps me get my pack on and we start hiking.  Not how I wanted to start my final day.  I am always sad on the day we have to go back and this just makes it even sadder.

We make our way to Shadow Lake and my back is doing much better now.  The Advil has kicked in and the spasming is gone.  Hooray!!

The Shadow Lake trail goes down next to the waterfall from Shadow Lake and is not for the faint of heart.  It is on a high ridgeline with some places that leave very little room for error or you plunge to your death over the waterfall.  It’s making me nervous and I just want to get through this section as quickly as possible.  Of course, Cordlan loves this part!  He and Gannon are taking all kinds of photos when I am focusing as best I can to put one foot in front of the other.  A pack train of horses passes us and I am in awe of the people riding them.  No way would I ride them up or down this trail.  Yikes!!

We all make it safely to the bottom and back to the River Trail that we came in on a couple days ago.  Cordlan is now on super speed mode, because he needs to take care of some business and does not want to dig a hole today.  He leaves us in the dust to meet up at the end.

We finish the trail before noon and make our way to the bus stop.  As we get there a bus shows up coming down and we think we need to hop on.  The bus driver gets mad and says no right was the correct bus is passing us.  Ugh!  We now need to wait another 30 min for the bus to come back again.

As we are hanging out 3 men a little older than us come out of the trailhead and over to the bus stop.  They are all from Modesto (where I grew up and met Gannon).  Their kids went to the same high school we did (Davis High).  What a funny coincidence.  As we are chatting about where we are all from, we mention getting Cordlan back to San Diego for work.  They question who he is (friend, neighbor, etc.).  They are totally shocked when we say he is our son!  They would have never have guessed it and talk about how young we look to have a son that old.  OK….this totally makes my whole day!!  We make small talk until our correct bus comes along.  They are staying at Red’s Meadow resort overnight so they will not be taking the same bus.  They got done with their trip a few days early and their wives don’t want them home yet!  Haha!  Gotta love it!

Out we ride on our bus back to Mammoth Adventure Center, in our car back to the condo, take showers, and out to Burgers Restaurant for our celebratory burgers and beer.  Soo happy to be able to backpack again and already planning one for next week!

Click here to view more photos from Day 3.