Gary-Summer: June 17, 2018 - Vanderburg Lake to Lady Lake

Sunday, June 17, 2018

June 17, 2018 - Vanderburg Lake to Lady Lake

Title: June 17, 2018 - Vanderburg Lake to Lady Lake
Hike Info : Description : Background : Menu : Extra Photo's : Animals

Trail head: Vanderburg Lake

Hike Info:

Type: Backpacking

Trail: Lady Lake

Destination: Lady Lake

Distance: 2.56 miles

Start Time: 11:17

End Time: 4:20

Travel Time: 5:03 (0.51 mph)

Moving Time: 1:46 (1.45 mph)

Elevation Rise: 444'

Descent: 418‘

Maximum Elevation: 8,997'

GPS Tracks

Description:

I slept mostly well. At least my newly patched pad held up and I did not become one with the ground. I should have gotten up when Sherri got up to relieve herself. It would have been warmer. But once I tucked my head inside my bag, I was comfortable. I got up at 7:20 and walked around a bit. Saw some ducks and a track. The wind was blowing pretty nicely, meaning that there were no mosquitoes. I had my Quiet Time in Psalm 119

On the trail again

Rose gets up and then Sherri. We have decided to do some day hikes today, so it is a pretty leisurely morning. We talk some about a variety of topics and books, like Hiking Through by Paul Stutsman, A Walk Along Land's End by John McKinney,, which lead to me bringing in J Smeaton Chase’s books on the coast (California Coast Trails; A Horseback Ride from Mexico to Oregon) and Yosemite (Yosemite Trails: Camp and Pack-Train in the Sierra Nevada).

We then get ready for our walk to Lady Lake. Not that we scramble to get ready, but just keep the aestivate pace of the morning.

Lady Lade Junction

A little after 11, we take off. Rose examines the tracks I found this morning and pronounces them as prossibly dog tracks-I guess tracking is not one of my skills. (We see a dog the next day, so this makes some sense) The trail goes up the side of a ridge. You can see that at times the trail has become a temporary waterway. Sort of fun going up the boulders and granite stone steps.

Gary and the snow patch

At the top of a climb, we come to the junction for Lady Lake. The new trail gentle climbs up. We go through a scenic patch of ground manzanita. A little ways later, we come to a patch of snow which we walk through. A beautiful walk.

Lady Lake

Then we climb the ridge and we catch a view of the lake. It is elegant like a lady. Now to find the story behind the name. We curve around past a couple campsites until we reach the north side. There we plunk down to enjoy the place.

Gary napping

We must have really enjoyed the spot as we stayed there all afternoon, talking, and in my case, taking short catnaps. I also wandered over to a tarn which feeds into Lady Lake. Very pretty. Later, as I was looking over some information, trying to find out why the name, I came across some factoids which confused me.

Lady Lake tarn

More of Lady Lake tarn

View on the walk back to camp

Around 3:30, we start back to camp at Vanderburg Lake, arriving a little after 4:00. We continued our ways of the day by lounging around for a time, talking. Around six, we have Sherri and I have our Mountain House Lasagna dinner. Only thing missing is some french bread. (As a note, Rose’s stuff looked pretty good.)

After dinner, we continued the modus operandi of the day, more lounging around. Then we hit the bag little after 8:30. After reading, the phone is turned off by 9:00.

Background

Lady Lake. The confusion is where is the real Lady Lake? When I look at GNIS, it says that Lady Lake is at: 37.5402779, -119.3644452. Another set of lakes called Madera Lakes coordinates (37.5423263, -119.3621166) are at the lake where we are at. But as Rose points out, the trail books and blogs Lady Lake as being where we are at. The best reconciliation was on a blog, which I lost the reference too. What they said is that Lady Lake is just one of the Madera Lakes. Sounds good to me.

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Ritz Crackers, Peanut Butter, Nutella	Mountain House Lasagna	Clif Bar, GORP,, Scratch, Coffee Candy