Garnet Lake to Agnew Meadows
(8 miles, +1,100/-2,500 feet).

Our last day on trail was super easy and surprisingly pretty.  The main virtue of today’s route for me (other than the burger and beer at its end!) was to see part of the John Muir Trail I had to abandon on an earlier trip where I hurt my knee.  I’ve now done everything from Tully Hole to Marie Lakes.

Since we had such low easy mileage today we took our time leaving camp.

I did a short day hike to nearby Altha Lake both to see the sunrise and to book an AirBnB cabin for us for tonight.

Rainbow T certainly earned his trail name this morning.  Donning nothing more than a dirty sock, he actually caught a trout in a shallow pool below the outlet to Garnet Lake.

He returned it back to the water and we all packed up to leave.  But not before some spectacular reflection shots!

Eventually we departed the John Muir Trail and headed down to the River Trail which would take us along the Middle Fork San Joaquin to Agnew Meadows.

We played a game before reaching the bus stop.  How many minutes until the next one comes?  Well, we waited a bit and then I looked up the schedule on my phone.  It turns out the day we took the bus to start was the last day of service for the season!

So MixMaster grabbed a Subaru that was heading down and asked if we could get a lift.  They only had room for one, but that was fine.  I took the spot (they drove me right to our car!) and then I drove back up to get everyone from the trailhead.

Soon we found our cabin, showered, and headed to Burgers Restaurant where a food coma awaited….