June 21, 2012 – McGee Lake to Murphy Ck/Tenaya Lake

Title: June 21, 2012 – McGee Lake to Murphy Ck/Tenaya Lake

Trail head: Murphy Creek

Hike Info:

Trail: Murphy Creek

Destination: Murphy Creek Trailhead

Distance: 7.6

Travel Time: 5:46

Moving Time: 3:26

Elevation Rise: 1,129'

Maximum Elevation: 8,738'

Description:
Its a record! We got up at 5:30 and hit the trail by 7:00Surprises of this sort is good—it brings hope for our JMT effort.



The trail skirts along McGee Lake for its length, about a third of a mile, pleasant walking. Sherri took off about 10 minutes before me. Even at a 3 mph pace, I am not catching her. Refreshing forest.




I cross a creek and start on uphill. Finally I catch up with her and in a nick of time. She has the toilet paper. Found a really wonderful place off trail—should have created a waypoint. The logs formed a good seat.



From this point, we climb 8-900' to the May Lake/Murphy Creek trail junction. While not steep, it is continuous. Most of the time , a climb like this is not bad. But today we are fighting a scourage of diminutive Dracula's which want our blood. But Deet works better than mirrors or trying to drive a silver dagger through a mosquito's heart.



But we reach the top, now it is all downhill, following Murphy Creek to Teneya Lake. We stop about a mile and half from Tenaya Lake for a picnic lunch. The usual—pepperoni stick, crackers, jerky and peanut butter/nutella. Good meal.



Murphy Creek is no Tuolumne River, but a small creek. The trail takes us through forests, inter weaved with long slabs of granite. We get to Tenaya Lake at 11:30, not in time for the first shuttle. We waited for about an hour and when the shuttle did not stop—we are not at a designated shuttle stop. So we walked another half a mile to the east end of the lake where the shuttle picked us up.



It lets us off at Lembert Dome parking lot. I then walk down to the car and come back and pick Sherri up. There is a low tire pressure light on. Stop at the gas station and fill it up with air—very flat. We make it home without further incident, of course stopping at Todd's.