Trip Report - May Lake - Toulumne Peak via Old May Lake Trai

[Grzldvt]

Well,m the original idea was to go from Murphy Creek to Falls Ridge, but the team going on this trip was pretty spent on a race around Lake Tahoe on Saturday, so we decided to alter our plans.
bill-e-g's report on the May Lake mystery trail fascinated me, as I am a huge fan of the area. We decided to follow that trail and bag Toulumne Peak.
Sunday we got to the May Lake entrance and the road is closed until July. They are revamping the parking lot and due to construction you have to park at the entrance or across Tioga Road.
No worries we do the road, and the trail to May Lake. We follow the regular trail along the lake to the sign that say .02 May lake. At that sign you can see the old trail. We headed up that trail for roughly two miles, at which point we decided to camp. Found a great spot that included two existing fire rings. We used one of them and obliterated the second one.
All part of our trying to clean up the mess campaign.
Monday we continued on the old trail until we hit the May Lake/Ten lakes trail. It was a great hike, and we did quite a bit of trail work, making it a bit easier for those that follow. One of our party is a very experienced trail builder/maintenance supervisor, so he has a clue on what to do.
Our goal was to follow the "Mystery Trail" to the end. Once we hit the trail junction we doubled back to go up Toulumne Peak.
We found a place that looked like it would be an easy cross country hike up to Toulumne Peak. As we progressed up a gully, it got into a borderline Class 3 type of a climb.
We hit a plateau and had a class 2 climb to the top of Toulumne Peak.
Spent about 2 hours on the peak, and headed down. As you drop off the peak, there is an obvious flat area that drops to the south. We took it and stumbled across some ducks that helped lead us down to the old May Lake trail which we took back to camp.
Pics are at - https://picasaweb.google.com/1183609704 ... teJune2012 I made an attempt at doing some HDR(High Dynamic Range) photography. They start at pic 75 through the end.

[bill-e-g]

Photos don't show up.
Um... from the south... it's about 1.25 miles to top of saddle.
From the north... it's about 1.75 miles to top of saddle.
So.. I dunno how you weren't above 9600 ft. There was
a fire ring up there last year I dismantled.... after shaking my head.
Maybe you should have removed them both?

Anyway, glad you had fun on the old trail. I love stuff like that.

[bill-e-g]

As part of your clean up the mess. IMHO you should be knocking down
all the cairns you run across. I thought I'd knocked them all down last year.
I really have no idea why they are needed. I'm serious. It's very open
and the peak is fairly obvious. With a map and/or GPS I thought it
was a no brainer. Maybe I am wrong. ???

The problem with cairns on true xcountry trek is that people will
start creating a trail. When traveling xcountry it is best to
spread out some to be lighter on the land.

Anyway, have fun

[Grzldvt]

Photos don't show up.
Um... from the south... it's about 1.25 miles to top of saddle.
From the north... it's about 1.75 miles to top of saddle.
So.. I dunno how you weren't above 9600 ft. There was
a fire ring up there last year I dismantled.... after shaking my head.
Maybe you should have removed them both?

Anyway, glad you had fun on the old trail. I love stuff like that.

Try this for the photos
https://picasaweb.google.com/1183609704 ... teJune2012
Or my final HDR pics
https://picasaweb.google.com/1183609704 ... bookImages

Our GPS showed us at 9455, I suspect we did not get as far as the saddle you are thinking about. We were pretty whipped and cut it short.
You know Macho Men in their 60's still think they can kick butt like they did in their 40's We all run a hard 10+ miles in altitude, spend all day going around Lake Tahoe supporting our runners and then plan on kicking out a 12- 14 X-country miler in Yosemite the next day... Right..... The clue we weren't getting too far was the Advil we needed to take just to get out of the car when we got to the May Lake parking lot
I believe we went about 1/2 - 3/4 of a mile of the trail junction from May Lake. I am very, very conscientious about leaving no trace. Normally I don't do fires. i have a Butane/Propane lantern that serves as our campfire. Bu the skeeters were so heavy the smoke kept them at bay.
I am with you I dismantle illegal sites when I see them.
I also love the obscure trails. Once again I really appreciate the photo's/post on that trail. It was a trip we will not forget for a very long time. Plus we all enjoyed doing a little trail work along the way. One of the guys that was with us is a volunteer trail supervisor, he was very interested in cleaning up the trail especially towards the Ten Lakes side, but is also very aware of keeping things obscure. tough decision for him.
Going up to Toulumne Peak from a distance it seemed obvious, we chose a very different route, that at times was a class 2.5 drill. On the way down, based on what i saw from the bench we knew the route was pretty obvious, the ducks just kept us on course.
As far as the cairns/ducks, you do bring up an interesting point I hadn't thought of. Something to think about for the future

[bill-e-g]

At that sign you can see the old trail. We headed up that trail for roughly two miles, at which point we decided to camp.

With this statement you are OVER the saddle. That is why I mentioned about the fire rings
and the mileage w/r to the old trail.
I suspect that you were at the first "meadowy" area before you hit the switchbacks on the way up
The saddle is obvious... since when you are atop it.. the trail goes a back down.
Still can't see your pictures. Prob. the permissions are not set to public.. since your other sets show up.

If you have Roper's Sierra High Route book take a look at what he says about cairns and his route.

I try to be Uber LNT.

[Grzldvt]

Sorry was in Seattle doing the Seattle RnR Marathon. We all thought we put in much more mileage than we actually did once we got the GPS plot. So yes we stayed at the first meadowy area which was below 9600 ft

[bill-e-g]

np

Again, the photos don't show...

[orion]

last time i saw a cairn being knocked down, it was a western fence lizard what done it. figured i'd let them take care of that business, being their rocks and all.

[bill-e-g]

tell that to the Marmots

[Grzldvt]

Ok I think the pics are fixed for viewing
https://picasaweb.google.com/1183609704 ... teJune2012

https://picasaweb.google.com/1183609704 ... bookImages

I am still learning the HDR drill and the HDR pics are 1+ and 1-. I need to do at least 2+ and 2- in order to really get them above and beyond.

[bill-e-g]

Thanks. Nice. Makes it clear.

When you said "Once we hit the trail junction we doubled back to go up Toulumne Peak." I assumed you
went back up the Mystery Trail a bit towards the saddle... and then up from the south.
Your pix show you following the main trail to the tarns NE of Tuol Peak and then up.
From the tarns you cannot see the Peak. The peaks north of Tuol Peak are serious class 3-4.
From the tarns ... there are many routes... definite class 2 routes exist. I've taken some people
up that way that had done little to no backpacking before.
Anyway, really nice trip. I love that old trail.

Have fun and thx