We set off from San Jose around the usual 2a start time. I was a bit late
picking Matthew up because I couldn't find a gas station open at that hour in
my neighborhood. With the tank on empty, I drove to five gas stations before
finding one open (which happened to be the one closest to my house, but in the
opposite direction of my initial search). I picked up Matthew a short time
later in Milpitas, and off we went. We watched the temperature drop steadily
as we drove higher into the Sierra on SR120, hovering a bit below freezing
when we reached 8,000ft. Matthew was nodding off for the last few hours of the
drive and I found I couldn't stay awake either, so not long before Olmstead
Point I pulled over and we slept comfortably for a bit more than an hour. It
was just before
7a when I roused us again, and about 7:20a when we 
headed out from the
Tuolumne Meadows parking lot. With overnight parking no longer allowed along
SR120 and the campground and store closed, there were few visitors this time
of year. Ours was the lone vehicle in the large lot that normally
has almost a hundred cars during the summer months.
We hiked up 
Lyell Canyon
for several hours until the turnoff to Ireland Lake.
Matthew was ahead of me on the trail as usual, and out of sight at the point
where I decided to head cross-country for a short-cut to the lake. The trail
trends NW towards Vogelsang Camp and a trail junction, but the shorter route
is to follow the drainage up towards the lake, staying on the NW side.
Once out of the forest in the first ten minutes, the cross-country route
travels through beautiful golden brown 
meadows.
Often soggy or flooded earlier
in the year, they were a delight to wander through on the way to Ireland Lake.
I reached the lake at 10:15a, scanning the shores and surrounding terrain for
signs of Matthew. I was pretty sure he wouldn't have continued past the lake
without me, so I relaxed on a rock overlooking the lake and waited for Matthew
to show. He was some half hour 
in arriving,
not because my route was that much
faster, but because he had waited a similar amount of time at the trail
junction wondering what had happened to me.
Parsons Ridge rose up behind Ireland Lake not far away. I suggested we might
traverse around the lake and approach from 
the north
rather than the usual
route via the pass on the east side of the peak. Hoping to avoid the standard
talus slog, Matthew readily agreed. We 
filled up
on water as we passed by the
lake's outlet, then continued 
traversing
until we were beneath the steepest part
of the Northwest Ridge. That isn't really saying a whole lot since the peak is
pretty mild from most directions. We found the route
surprisingly enjoyable, with class 3 scrambling on the more
solid facets, class 2 in the 
talus-filled sections.
The last few hundred feet featured a steep
rock band that varied from class 5 on the right side to class 3 towards the
left, and we picked our way through 
this section
via a challenging, but not too
scary route. Matthew commented how embarrassing it would be should we die
attempting Parsons.
Once on the Northwest Ridge, we had a 
short section
of almost-knife-edged scrambling for about 100 yards until it gave way to the
easy, 
rounded slopes that continued
for the remainder of the effort. We stopped short of the summit to
investigate several cairns we assumed were meant to mark the county highpoint
on the slopes below the true summit. Inside one we found
a register of fairly
recent origin, less than two years old. To further assure ourselves we had
touched the county highpoint, we followed the spine of the ridge up to the true
summit. In addition to the fine views (
N, 
NE, 
E,
SE, 
S, 
SW, 
W, 
NW)
and delightful weather we found there, another register was tucked into a
cairn at the north summit, also relatively new.
Earlier,
Matthew had been talking about visiting Simmons Peak to the southeast after
tagging Parsons, but I had given little credence to the liklihood of that
additional bonus. It was already 1p, having taken us longer to reach the summit
than either of us had guessed beforehand. Matthew was no longer interested in
Simmons, nor the closer 
Amelia Earhart not far to the east.
We descended what
we figured would be the quickest way back to Ireland Lake via some
straightforward class 2 boulder/talus slopes off the east side. Once at the
lake we took the cross-country shortcut I'd taken on the way in, doing a little
better job of it by avoiding the bit of bushwhacking I'd run into earlier.
Once we were back down to Lyell Canyon we had another two hours of slogging it
out back to the trailhead. With Matthew out of sight ahead of me on the trail,
we came across two backpackers heading in for the weekend. One of them looked
vaguely familiar though I only gave a short greeting as I passed them without
stopping to chat. Later Matthew recollected a similar feeling that one looked
like Steve Eckert. It was just before 5p when we exited the trail, still an
hour of daylight remaining, and more importantly, plenty of time to catch dinner
at the Whoa Nellie.
I sent an email to Steve Eckert when we returned from the trip, and sure enough it was he and a friend. They had gone in for an overnighter to tag Amelia Earhart and Parsons. That was the first time either of us had met in person though I've exchanged a number of emails with him. He commented that he should have likewise guessed it was Matthew and I passing by. Perhaps we'll look more carefully in the future!
Continued...