Vogelsang Lake Backpacking Trip

June 13-14, 2002

Participants

Louis Perrochon and Arturo Crespo

Stats

June 13th, 2002:
- Backpacking: 8mi, 2275ft elev gain, 590ft elev loss
- Fletcher Peak Climb: 2.2mi, 1575ft elev gain
June 14th, 2002: 14.75mi, 2530ft elev gain, 4215ft elev loss (3.75mi cross country).

Route

Click on the map to get a high-resolution map (1.16Mb)

Blue=First Day
Yellow=Fletcher Peak and Peak 11440+ climb (first day)
Red=Second Day

Pictures

Louis at the Toulumne Meadow trailhead with the Dana Fork of the Toulumne river in the background.

The Lyell fork of the Toulumne

Arturo near Toulumne Pass (with Fletcher and Vogelsang Peaks in the background)

A partially frozen pond near Toulumne Pass. Believe or not, very loud frogs live in there!

Toulumne Pass

Potholing in the soft afternoon snow.

For the last mile, the trail was mostly buried under the snow.

Vogelsang Peak

Partially frozen Vogelsang Lake

Our route up Mt. Fletcher. We followed the boulder field to the lower cluster of trees, then we veered right into bigger boulders, we passed through a slot, and reached the higher cluster of trees. From there, we followed a creek to a plateau from which the summit is an easy class 2 scramble, follow by one or two moves of harder and exposed class 2. At the top, there are about 5 pinnacles in the Northeast side and a round peak to the Southwest. The "official" summit is the second pinnacle from the right (Northwest), although the Southwest peak is higher (Peak 11440+). Because we didn't know which one was the summit, we climbed the two highest ones (the second one happen to be the summit) and also Peak 11440+). There were no register or markers at the summit.

Louis half way up Fletcher.

Louis on top of a big rock in the Fletcher Plateau.

Ridge connecting Peak 11440+ and last pinnacle of Fletcher Peak.

Arturo on top of Peak 11440+

Louis enjoying the view from Peak 11440+

Arturo boots were not waterproof.

Peak 11440+

Arturo descending next to the creek.

Crossing to the right (West) after passing the higher cluster of trees. This is the steepest part of the approach.

Dinner time!

Looking back at Fletcher and Peak 11440+

Our camp in the morning.

Warming up in the morning sun by Vogelsang Lake.

After some discussion about what to do that day, we decided to go "lake bagging."
It didn't take long for Louis to get ready to hike out.

View towards Yosemite Valley.

Panorama of Fletcher Lake.

Waterfall at the outlet of Townsley lake

Townsley Lake

Trail next to Townsley Lake

Panorama of the small unnamed alpine lake above Townsley lake.

Unnamed alpine lake above Townsley lake.

Panorama of the plateau on top of Townsley Lake. We made the mistake of climbing too much as well as heading NorthEast. As a result, we ended at some cliffs and we have to backtrack and descend to the plateau.