August 19, 2014 - George Lake

Title: August 19, 2014 - George Lake

Trail head: Potter Pass Parking Lot

Hike Info:

Type:  Backpacking

Trail: Twin Lakes

Destination: George Lake

Distance: 4.76 miles

Start Time:  11:47

End Time:      4:05

Travel Time:  4:17 (1.11 mph)

Moving Time: 2:46 (1.72 mph)

Elevation Rise: 1,322'

Maximum Elevation: 9,101'

Description:
We are getting a late start. A bit of miscommunication about food. We leave Fresno around 9:15. At Prather we get our wilderness permit and get to the trail head about 11:15.  By 11:45 we are on the trail..

Sherri on the trail

Gary and the fisherman

We will be meeting our mid-week hiking group Wednesday at George Lake. So today we have the day to ourselves.  The first four miles is what I did a month ago to Twin Lakes. We climb up to Potter Pass. It is a good uphill, mostly in forest. First time Sherri has been this way and first time she has been up to Potter. We meet a fisherman on top of Potter who is wondering if he should continue. I give him a description of the trail to Twin Lakes and he goes that route. One thing I misspoke to him was I thought it was a 200' drop to the lake, but it is 400'. He got what he paid for-Free advice.

Upper Twin Lake

We follow him after having eating half our lunch. We pass alongside meadows and through forests. Unlike last time, the wildflower season has all passed us by. Here we make good time and get to Upper Twin Lake around 2:30.  We have the other half of our lunch here and watch the fisherman wading in the lake, trying his luck. My GPS is mostly discharged now and I find my reserve of AAA batteries was left home. May not be able to charge since the charger wants all four slots full.

We start our final leg to George Lake. There is a maze of paths leading to campsites and different places. So we lose the trail, but keep to the top of the ridge above Twin. We get some great views-I think they are better than on top of Potter. We think we see Mt Ritter and Banner to the Northeast. Also the southern end of Yosemite is in view.

Northern Range

Sherri

Gary

We meet our trail and continue our climb up to George. Not a bad climb. Just being on top of everything else, it is a bit tiring. Also the only view is up to Kaiser Peak-if that was not enough. We get into camp around 4. We are the only ones here. The only other people who we met on the trail, besides the fisherman, was a couple who had vacated Twin Lakes. So we have the whole place to ourselves.

I choose the same campsite which I had when Andrea, Steven and Doug were with us. Enjoyable memories. We sort of relax and enjoy ourselves. I read and Sherri picks a place in the sun with a view of the lake to take a nap. After awhile, the wind picks up and dark clouds come in; it turns cold. I pitch the tent, but there was not much protection from the wind. After scouting around, we decide to leave it where it is and put up the rain fly.

Camp Cooking

Time for dinner and then the luxury of hot chocolate, schnapps and homemade cookies. Good time to talk about our miscommunications. After cleaning up, we take a walk over to a ridge and enjoy the cloud covered view. Looks like rain to the northwest of us; 50-50 if we get rain tonight. Time for bed, or should I say bag. A time to read. I shut down my iPad at 9:10.

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
granola at home	Peanut Butter and Nutella sand which	beef and cabbage wrap with home made cookies and hot chocolate	Clif Bar, Jelly Bellies, CytoMax, Propel, GORP, Bank Balls

Gary on a rampage

Round Meadow