June 12, 2012, Watchtower

Trail head: Wolverton

Hike Info:

Trail: Lakes Trail

Destination: heather Lake

Actual Destination: Watchtower

Distance: 7.1

Travel Time: 5:01

Moving Time: 3:35

Elevation Rise: 2,537 – maybe exaggerated by 200'

Maximum Elevation: 8,8908

Description:
Whenever we have done this hike, I have Jimi Hendrix's version of All Along The Watchtower running through my brain. Not that the two are the same or even related.

We get up to the Wolverton parking lot, near Lodgepole around noon. We make good progress. There are three 20 something year old “boys” from Oceanside which we meet up with. Two of them must be the first time out—one of them does not have a backpack and has things bundled with a rope. As we go along, we play leap frog with them. The trail goes along the spine of a ridge separating Wolverton from the Topokah Valley. So you get glimpses of the valley—nothing special, but tantalizing. Someplace I drop the GPS and it loses track of where we are and how high up we are.


Just before we get to the trail junction with the Panther Gap, we meet a couple of girls. They tell us that a mother bear and her two cubs are a bit nervous when other hikers have passed them by. This is on the Hump Trail. It is giving us pause to consider about using the Hump today.


The Hump Trail and the Watchtower Trail are both part of the Lakes Trail. The Lakes Trail goes to Heather, Emerald, Astor and Pear Lakes. All jewels of lakes in along this trail. Pear Lake I count as my first real backpacking trip with my Dad. It is a trip which helped me fall in love with the High Sierra.


But enough about past trips. We break for lunch around 1 about 40 yards from the junction. We are trying out dried peanut butter mix from Bell Plantation. It is ok, but it lacks a little something. We dip our crackers in Nutella and the peanut butter is now tasty. Isn't that true of almost everything Nutella touches?



We then meet a girl—another 20 something by our creek. She takes pictures of all sorts of things. Then quietly moves on. The boys have not caught up with us yet. We pack up and go on and quickly come to the junction. By this time, we have climbed 900+' in 1.8 miles. After the junction, we continue to climb nicely. We come to the junction with the hump. We decide that we will forget about Heather Lake and the Hump and go to the Watchtower. We play leapfrog with the girl now that we have lost track of the boys. We finally catch up with her for the final time at the Watchtower. We all admire the view—up and down the Topokah Valley. You see the full view of the falls and then on up to the Tablelands. Just a good view of the High Sierra's.

We talk with the girl—never finding out her name. But she is a ranger at Lodgepole. No hat or uniform on, so no ranger picture. She is from Ohio. We do invite her over when she comes down to Fresno for supplies.


She goes on to Heather, we return down the trail. The boys have caught up with us and Sherri gives them some sunscreen. They are thankful. I note that it is a lot easier going down the trail, than up it. Sherri comments she was going to say that, but did not want to look like a wimp—guess that leaves me with the wimp title. We quickly make it back down to the car, around 5pm. Then off to Fresno and dinner at Casa Quinterio.