The Sierra Club Outing of ipip 



17 



wall of Ritter we had to look up forty-five degrees to see the 

 top of that huge mass, so steep was the face. Following our 

 desire to see something of the headwaters of Shadow Creek, we 

 climbed to a small lake snuggled at the foot of a little glacier of 

 the Minarets, a gem of sapphire blue, whose only admirer until 

 we arrived appeared to be a solitary gull. Descending the 

 cafion, we passed Edisa Lake and gave willing testimony to the 

 report that it afforded the best view of Ritter and Banner. 

 From this point an excellent new trail, not on the map, led to 

 Agnew Meadows. Never have I seen such a variety and abun- 

 dance of mountain flowers, nor traversed a finer cafion than we 

 enjoyed this day. We lunched on Shadow Lake, also a beautiful 

 body of water, hemmed in by high austere slopes, down the de- 

 pressions of which forests of hemlock and mountain pine 

 spread caressingly. The trail descended rapidly to the San 

 Joaquin, so that in a short time we passed from albicaulis to 

 juniper, aspen, and manzanita. 



We found the main body encamped in a fine grove of firs on 

 the edge of the beflowered Agnew Meadows. The Ritter 

 climbers came in to a late dinner, weary of body but fresh in 

 spirit after a hard climb and a long hike. 



Two nights in Agnew Meadows permitted a variety of pleas- 

 ures, not the least of which were fir-bough beds. The inter- 

 vening day was devoted to a jaunt down-stream to the Devil's 

 Postpile, a striking outcropping of basalt prisms, suggesting, 

 when viewed from the side, a giant honeycomb fifty or more 

 feet thick, and exposing on the glaciated top that same giant's 

 parquet floor; to Rainbow Falls in the Middle Fork of the San 

 Joaquin, resembling Vernal Falls in appearance and volume, if 

 not in height; to Reds Meadows, and Hot Sulphur Springs, 

 where the warm water gushes from a rich meadow and flows 

 away in a goodly flower-banked stream ; to Sotcher Lake, where 

 a threatening shower hastened a well-earned swim; through 

 long stretches of volcanic ash; and finally back to Agnew 

 Meadows, a paradise of flowers, breast-high with lilies, lu- 

 pines, and delphiniums, in patches as large as a dining-table. 



Early on July 22d, our fourth day out, the entire party 

 climbed to Agnew Pass, moving most of the time either through 

 flower- carpeted forest, or above timber-line, along a sloping 



