Gary-Summer: Huntington Lake

Showing posts with label Huntington Lake. Show all posts

Saturday, July 20, 2024

July 20, 2024 - Backpacking to Lower Twin Lakes

Title: July 20, 2024 - Backpacking to Lower Twin Lakes

Hike Info : Description : Menu : Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type: Backpacking

Trail head: Potter Pass

Trail: 24E03 - California Riding and Hiking Trail

Destination: Upper Twin Lakes

Actual Destination: Lower Twin Lakes

Distance: 3.3 miles ¹

Elevation Rise: 1.138 '

Descent: 807‘

Maximum Elevation: 8,984'

¹The GPS turned itself off. The above information is based upon a plot on Google Earth. The mileage is close to what I anticipated.

Description:

Gary at the start

Am I ready to go on my first backpacking trip in two years? I think I have the equipment ready, but is my body ready? I am cognizant that my body is older and that there have been some things which has weakened the body. If I sound like I do not want to go, you would be wrong, I am just aware that I am not as young and strong as I used to be.

Now that I got that out of the way, here is how the day went. Last night I did the lightning report for today, so that meant I had the morning free to get things ready to go. I still get up at 5:30. I just did a few things until the others got up at 7. We still take until after 9 before we leave. Some of this is that Rachel got in late last night and she needed to get repacked after some equipment failure. A little slow start but we do not have a long hike today.

We stopped at Prather to pick up our wilderness permit-I had gotten a reservation and just needed to pick up the actual permit. But if you know me, I can stretch things. Recently I had been in communications with BC42 and I checked to see if he was in-he is! He came out and talked with me for a little while. It is good to see somebody face to face.

Mountain Meadow

Off we go with Steven continuing to drive. It takes close to an hour to get to the trail head. We passed by Shaver and Huntington Lakes, then went up Kaiser Pass Road. The trail head is called Potter Pass, not to be confused with the Potter Pass Cutoff, which is a bit lower. The parking lot is full, but we are able to find parking about 200’ up the road at an auxiliary parking area.

View from Potter Pass

It is a bit after 11:00 when our boots hit the dirt. My pack is starting out as the heaviest, about 35 pounds. The reason is I am trying to carry the weight as if Sherri and I are going along. I will use Steven and Rachel to offload if I feel like I am going to have trouble carrying this,

Round Meadow

The first two miles is up to Potter Pass. It is a 900’ climb. Because of our late start, it is a bit warm. But we work our way up. I am going OK, keeping a steady pace up. Not terribly fast. While the landscape is not terrible, the flowers which are in bloom kept me inspired as we walked along, And there are many flowers in bloom-see the pictures below.

Korra and Steven at Lower Twin

About half way to Potter Pass we stop for lunch. It feels good to rest for about half an hour. As we get ready to leave, we hear a familiar voice. Our hiking friend, Jerry J comes down the trail and stops with his friend Emma. We chatted for a while and then each went our separate ways.

We still have a bit to go up, which we do, It is a hot, exposed section. I concentrate on making steady progress towards the Pass. Steven and I get to the top and there are several groups already there. We find a spot off the trail in the shade and wait for Rachel and Sherri. We see more people come through, some on horses. Korra eyeballs them, but does not seem to be too interested in giving chase. Maybe she is hot.

Sherri and Rachel come up and rest as well. Even though I have been laying down for awhile, I still feel like the rest I am going. I feel good that I made it up to the top, since most of the rest of the trail is downhill. Unfortunately, there is a fair amount of haze today. The mountains to the north are only a faint outline of when we have seen them before. To the east are some clouds and before we take off, we hear a couple booms of thunder. I guess this means it is time to move on.

Place of rest

The trail down is steep and dusty and exposed. This equals not a whole bunch of fun since I know we will be climbing out of it again tomorrow. Eventually we get into a tree covered area which makes this part of the trail a bit more pleasant. Rachel and Steven go on ahead while Sherri and I pick our way down through the stones on the path. At our age, we are a bit more cautious of what happens when we roll on one of these rocks.

Upper Twin Lake

We get to the junction to Twin Lakes. And now the trail goes more even. We pass by a nice meadow, Round Meadow. And we continue on with the two “kids” in front. I stop and talk with a couple backpackers who are coming out. They advocate stopping at Lower Twin Lake to camp. They say that there are some large groups at Upper. I keep this in mind for when we arrive at Lower.

That is only about ten minutes away. When we discuss our plans among the four of us-Korra has a tendency to do whatever the rest of us wants to do, Rachel goes off to find if there is a suitable camp spot. She finds one at the northwest end of the Lower Twin Lake, across the trail from the lake. It is back aways, not hidden, but obscure. There is a fire pit, not that we are going to use it, and places for a tent and a couple hammocks. We decided to stop here.

Reflection in Lower Twin Lake

The kids put up their hammocks. I just lay around for about 20 minutes. I guess the hike, even though it is about 3½ miles, tuckered me out. I laid around some more and eventually put up the tent. Steven and Rachel went over to Upper Twin for a swim. That gives me about an hour more to read and rest. When they came back, it is time for dinner. It is freeze dried stuff. Pretty good and filling, or maybe it is that I am not all that hungry.

After dinner, Sherri and I walk over to Upper Twin and enjoy a sunset. Then we walked back to Lower and enjoyed some more of the evening, before heading back to camp. Rachel and Steven have cleaned up camp. There is a little bit of smelly stuff left over which will not fit into a bear cannister. So we will do one of my favorite camp tasks-hanging the food. Rachel tries several times and either the cord comes off of the rock or the rock does not go up high enough. She turns over the task to me. I somehow do it in one toss. Is this experience or luck? I am leaning towards the latter.

Since it is dark, we all head to bed, around 9pm. I read for a while and then turn over and go to sleep-Sherri does go to sleep a bit after me.

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Snacks

Breakfast at home

Sandwiches made at home

Freeze dried food:

Chicken Alfredo

Pad Thai with Chicken

We also brought along a Jambalaya, but did not use it

GORP, Jelly Bellies, Energy Bars, Energy Drinks

Extra Photo's

Upper Twin Lake

Lower Twin Lake

Potter Pass- Korra, Steven, Rachel, and Sherri

Are the mosquitos really that bad?

Rachel, Gary, Steven, Korra, Sherri, Jerry J

Rachel is still happy, her mom trods on

Potter Pass

Sherri

Rachel

Meadow below Lower Twin Lake

Korra

Upper Twin Lake

Rachel ready for a swin

Upper Twin Lake

Steven going in for a dip; Korra already a cool dog

Steven and Korra on an island in Upper Twin Lake

Animals

Marmot

Flowers and Plants

Richardson Geranium

Columbine

Tiger Lily

Alpine Aster

Brewers Angelica

Alpine Shooting Star

Scareltt Gilia

Cabbage Lily

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

February 17, 2021 - Meadow Trail

Title: February 17, 2021 - Meadow Trail
Hike Info : Description : Extra Photo's

Trail head: Tamarack SnoPark

Hike Info:

Type: Snowshoeing
Trail: Meadow Trail, Rock Creek Road (Road 9)
Destination: No set destination
Distance: 4.34 miles ¹
Start Time: 9:55
End Time: 3:15

Elevation Rise: 423'
Descent: 423‘
Maximum Elevation: 7,584'
GPS Tracks

Candance Gregory's Route in Blue, Ours in Red

¹Above is the data from a Google Earth track I manually created. If you look at the two maps, I think the one on the left is more accurate concerning the route we took. I have misplaced my GPS. Above is from a manual set of tracks Note: Rose’s InReach has us going 4.5 miles while her phone app has us at 4.9 miles.

Description:

Our second snowshoe walk this year with Rose and Betty-the first was last week. This is getting to be habit-forming, a good habit. We are going up towards Tamarack Ridge, or if it looks too chopped up, maybe over to the Coyote SnoPlay area. I have seen a route which Candace Gregory did which looked impressive. If no one else has any ideas, maybe we can do that one.

Start of Trail

Sherri and I leave our house at 8:25, a few minutes later than expected. So we got to Prather a few minutes later than expected. We meet up with Betty and Rose there and then head off to Tamarack Ridge. This is the first time we have been through the area of the Creek Fire. There is a sense of sorrow as we get past Mountain Rest and then Cressmans. The hills are scorched bare. It is like that until we start to get to Shaver Lake. It is both a miracle and skill which saved that town.

We are the first ones at Tamarack Ridge. The trail does not look like it is chopped up by snowmobilers so we decide this is where we will go today. But where? Nobody has a good idea, but I have maps on my phone.so I will try to figure out what to do. As we leave, a couple more cars pull up.

We set off on the Rock Creek Road. The morning is cold. Driving in the car temperature measured 35-37^o .It has been packed by snowmobilers. I make a comment to Betty that we had better not fall as it will hurt. But the good part about being packed is that it gives us a chance to loosen up quickly and move easily.

Nice Clean Snow

We get to a junction about a quarter mile in with trails going everywhere. I pick a trail without snowmobile tracks called the Meadow Trail. There is a set of cross-country ski tracks and that is it. The others are in agreement, well at least are not against going this way. So off we go.Turns out this is not Candance Gregory’s trail.

I am in the lead, breaking snow. Seems appropriate since I am the heaviest and biggest. The first part of the trail is not bad. I stay to the side of the ski tracks for the most part.The snow is a bit crusty, but most of the time holds up under my weight. But after a while, I am sinking about ¾ of a foot or more. This is harder work. We are passing through trees. It is refreshing being amongst these trees.

Our group following the tracks

We go along for aways, just enjoying each other’s company, the trees, snow and blue sky. Even though it is cold, we have gotten our warm layers off and feeling better for it. The tracks we are following are making a wide bend, going down some more (I really felt we were going up, but that does not jive with reality.). I ask the ladies about going up the ridge, maybe we will see something. They said they would follow me. Ordinarily I would give a caveat warning about not knowing what we will find or what kinds of terrain we will encounter. But these ladies have followed me before. Sometimes to places wonderful, other times I am glad they did not have a knife in their hands.

Lunch Rock

Something about going across virgin snow makes it seem like nobody else has ever been here before. So wonderful, so peaceful, only the sounds we make, with an occasional sound from a bird. We go up a knoll and then find that a small creek is there. Rather than dip into the creek, I begin looking for a place across it. I do not think there is water, but neither am I sure. After being like Billy on the Family Circus, I finally found a place to cross over. At least coming back, I just need to follow my prints to find this place.

Billy from the Family Circus = sort of like my route on this trip

Betty

A bit more walking and another creek. These two creek crossings will help me to orient where we are later when we stop for lunch. As we climb out of the second creek, there is a nice long bit of unbroken snow leading up to a rock at the top of a mound. Sounds like a good spot for lunch. There may even be a good viewing place there. It still takes 15 minutes to get up there, but it is not bad to climb.

Gary, playing Kings of the Mound

We climb to the top of the mound, to the rock-I have christen it in my mind, The Lunch Rock. Snow is on it, but I scrape away the snow. There is at least enough room for three of us. But Rose has her own pad, so does Betty. So Sherri and I sit on my coat. To the north-northeast we can see Kaiser Peak. Below that there is a cloud of warm moisture rising from Huntington Lake-we cannot see the lake. An unidentified peak is to the west of Kaiser-still do not know what it is. To the east is another peak. I guessed it might be Red’s Mountain-I confirm this when we get home.

In looking at the map, I figure out where the two creeks we crossed and where our rock is. I mention that Road 9 (Rock Creek Road) is just a hundred yards to our west. And then I look over and see it. We now discuss what we want to do. We decided to go down to the road and travel on it for awhile.

Once we get to the road-pretty easy, we cross it and follow a snowmobile track up a mound. Once at the top, where do we go now? I think I must be feeling a bit tired as I am not interested in following the track to wherever it might go. So we go back down to the road. We follow it for further until we get to a long straight away. It is my turn around time. But there is that peak again. I am still trying to work out what it is. Chinese Peak I think is further north, so I am still thinking it is Red’s Mountain.

Rose

Coming back we follow the road back to where we first met it from Lunch Rock. Once again the decision is mine about which way to go-up the road or follow our tracks. It seems a shame to have made these tracks and not use them again, so I follow them. We circle Lunch Rock and pick up the tracks on the other side. Now it is downhill, back to the creeks. No problem following the tracks here.

And now we are back to the Meadow Trail. Should be easy right? As we go along, I notice I am slowing down more and more. Yep, this old horse is getting a bit tired. And then I notice that it looks like we are going uphill. But didn’t we go uphill to get here? How could we be going uphill both ways. Sigh, my mind seems like it is getting feeble. Sherri gives me a drink of her energy brew. Not sure it helps, I wonder if the psychology can work in reverse. You know, if you think it will help it will. In this case, I am wondering if it actually will help and I do not feel a boost from it.

Either way, we make it back to the Rock Creek Road junction. Now it is a lot easier on a packed surface. We hear a lot more voices than this morning. As we approach the parking lot, it is full. Glad we arrived this morning when we did. None of us seem to be in a big rush to leave. Each of us find a reason to doddle. But eventually we all take off. Sherri and I make it home by 5:15, grabbing a Habit Burger for dinner. Then we got on Zoom for our Wednesday family call. A good day.