I day-hiked up the MR two weeks ago to make sure I could find my way. That day we stopped at Upper Boy Scout Lake for lunch and came back down to the Portal. The plan for this trip was to hike up to Iceberg Lake on Tuesday, summit and return to the Portal via the MR on Wednesday. As on my previous trip I had a very useful discussion with Doug at the Portal Store about finding my way. I learned that there was snow up the chute above Iceberg Lake and ice and snow on the Final 400. My wife and I agreed we did not want to go up there in those conditions but did want to find our way to Iceberg Lake and camp there one night.
We found camping at the Portal convenient for both trips. Both times we were able to park very close to our walk-in camp sites which were conveniently very close to many bear-proof food storage lockers and trash cans.
We hit the trail around 7:30 AM Tuesday 8-5 and proceeded without incident - crossing Lone Pine Creek twice, traversing the Ebersbacher Ledges, then heading up to Lower Boyscout Lake.
Here we are taking a break at Lower Boy Scout Lake
Doug had advised me to stay just south of the vegetation around LBSL warning me that many people mistakenly take too high of a route up to those big boulders. Two weeks previously I had taken that high route but my wife somehow found the correct route upward.
Soon we went by the "pyramid shaped rock" that I learned about fron Steve's very helpful videos.
And we made it up and through Clyde Meadows and discovered that that clump of about a dozen trees right above CM is an excellent spot for lunch.
We arrived at our lunch spot at 12:30 and left towards Iceberg Lake at 1:00 PM.
We soon discovered that we had taken a slight wrong turn and scrambled up this little chute
My wife told me several times "That wasn't the right way to go and I am not going down that way."
Meanwhile I was becoming more exhausted as we continued and my pack was feeling heavier and heavier. Since we didn't expect to climb above Iceberg Lake, my wife Bea ditched her pack and we decided we would hike down to Upper Boy Scout Lake after reaching Iceberg Lake and camp there for the night. About an hour after Bea ditched her pack I started experiencing cramps in my legs and we agreed it would be best to turn around rather than getting farther and farther away from our intended camp site. It was 3:00 PM, two hours above our lunch spot. This is where we reversed course. I think it was just before the first seep, can anyone tell how far we were from Iceberg lake?
We met a solo hiker after Bea had retrieved her pack and he was kind enough to take this picture.
This time we found the correct route and were soon just above UBSL.
We set up camp and soon met the only other people there - a very nice couple - Kent and Norma.
We enjoyed a beautiful sunset as we had dinner.
And awoke for a nice sunrise and alpenglow
We left camp around 7:15 and arrived back at the Portal about 10:45.
