Iceland Lake
The granite slab in which Iceland Lake is located – we had to climb into there
Kristen, Trisha, Ben, Helen, Jeff with Relief Reservoir in the background
Descending the cross-country section on solid granite
We have been wanting to do a backpacking trip with Ben and Trisha for a while now, but hadn’t been able to get it together. So we started shopping around for a 1-2 night weekend trip close by. Steve recommended Iceland Lake, which can be done as a single night out-and-back, and is located in the Emigrant Wilderness (between Tahoe and Yosemite) only about 3.5 hours away. We did some additional research and decided it sounded perfect.
Kristen and I assumed the trip would be pretty easy after our abuse at Rae Lakes. Iceland Lake is only about 8 miles (2500ft elevation gain) from the Kennedy Meadows trailhead. However, the 8 miles took about 5.5 hours of trail time each way, and was actually a bit grueling. The trailhead is at 7,000ft, and the lake is at 9,200ft, so altitude definitely played an issue (we drove up from Oakland the morning of the first day), plus Kristen and I are probably were not fully recovered from Rae Lakes.
We started from the Kennedy Meadows trailhead, where we paid $10 to park at the private resort (it was either that or walk 3/4 of a mile from the free parks service lot to the trailhead). They run horse tours out of there, so the first several miles of trail were dusty and filled with horse poop. After passing Relief Reservoir (which is a gorgeous milky green color) at about 3-4 miles in, though, the horse poop dissipates along with the people on the trail. At about mile 6 or so, we were into Saucer Meadow, where the trail comes close to the river. Trip reports we had read indicated we should cross the river and start the cross-country ascent at the confluence of two rivers, but Trisha and Ben had walkie-talkies, and Ben said we should cross earlier (Ben had hiked in the day before with Helen and were already up at the lake). We did, and began a steep cross-country section up a solid granite slab into the high lakes basin. We knew we were shooting for a saddle (a pass) that would take us into the basin, so after a bit of climbing, we saw the saddle and it was fairly obvious where to go from there. The climb up was surprisingly gentle, especially since all the trip reports had said it was dangerously steep.
When we got to the top of the pass, we had a great view of the reservoir. Except we shouldn’t have had a view of the reservoir. We were confused. Iceland lake should have been straight ahead and visible, but it wasn’t. Ben told us via radio to go left (South) toward the huge granite cliffs making the edge of the basin, so we consulted the map and decided it was good idea, as the lake was near the cliffs. We were still not totally sure what had happened to our route, and for the next 45 minutes or so, we expected to see the lake around every bend, but instead there was only more rock and a large marshy area. Finally we spotted Ben and Helen, who had been looking for us from a high vantage point. They directed us to the campsite.
Ben and Helen had spent the day exploring the lake basin (Iceland Lake, Ridge Lake, Sardella Lake, and the Lewis Lakes), and had figured out what had happened to our route. We had climbed a far gentler saddle slightly to the North, and then had cut back South to get to the lakes, likely as a result of us crossing the river before the junction. We decided this accidental route was WAY better than the one suggested in the trip reports, and made a map of it for future reference:
The “typical” route takes you over the pass just North of Sardella Lake, which is apparently sketchy. We also camped accidentally at a tiny lake just next to Iceland Lake, which actually turned out well since the campsites were very nice, and the shallow lake was warm.
We settled into camp, set up the tent, and cooked dinner. There were zero mosquitoes. It was amazing.
After the sun set, we laid on some rocks and watched the night sky come into view. I have to say, the view of the sky up there was probably the best I’ve ever seen. It was totally clear, not a cloud, and the moon did not rise until midnight. The show was spectacular. We saw several ridiculously bright shooting stars, had a very defined view of the milky way, and spotted several satellites traversing the sky. Ben and I stayed out watching the sky for about an hour after the girls had gone to bed.
The next day, we woke up, ate breakfast, and went over to check out Iceland Lake proper. It’s quite gorgeous. The entire lakes basin appears to be a giant granite slab, with sheer cliffs overhanging most of the lakes. Iceland Lake was the most dramatic we saw – there were cliffs on the East side of the lake, and a granite slab of an island in the middle of the lake. It was really spectacular.
From there we made our way back down the way we had come up. After crossing the river and hitting the trail, we told Ben, Trisha, and Helen to go ahead. Kristen had twisted her knee a bit (a lingering injury from the Rae Lakes abuse), my left achilles was hurting (also from Rae Lakes), and we were going to descend very slowly. Ben had planned on having lunch after hiking out, so they were low on food (Kristen and I had brought a couple extra PB&Js). The only issue was, we had forgotten that Ben had our first aid kit, so Kristen was not able to take any ibuprofen for her increasingly painful knee. The last several miles seemed to take forever – each step on the steep descent hurt Kristen, and we arrived at the car to find a note from Ben and Trisha that they had left to go home (which is what I would have done). We bought some Gatorade and salty snacks from the Kennedy Meadows store (we had run out of water about 45 minutes before the end of the hike, but didn’t want to stop), and drove out of there. Of course, we stopped at In n Out in Manteca on the way home, and actually met up with Ben, Trisha, and Helen (they weren’t THAT far ahead of us) as they were finishing their meal.
All in all, this was an absolutely gorgeous hike, and one that I’d do again, maybe with an extra day or two built in to explore the huge granite basin. However, I would not recommend doing back-to-back trips like this, as it apparently takes a longer than two weeks to recover from the musculoskeletal abuse.
