Thursday six of us fro the Sierra Canyon Hiking Group did an 11 mile hike. We exited interstate 80 at the Soda Springs/Norden exit and parked on the road just north at the Lola Montez trail head.
The trail to Lower Lola Montez Lake is relatively easy and about three miles long. From there we climbed to Upper Lola Montez Lake. There isn't a trail but someone has put rock cairns along the route and climbing up through the boulders to the lake wasn't too hard.
From Upper Lola Montez Lake we followed a jeep road and did a bit of cross country to get to Lily Pond. Half the group sat and enjoyed Lily Pond while Duke, Walt and I bushwhacked our way to the top of Buzzards Point. It was a tough slog but the view from the top was phenomenal. By the time we got back down to Lily Pond my pants were covered in thorns.
If you would like to see all of my pictures from the hike you can see them on Flickr here.
Category: Hiking
Bear Lake Loop Hike with Sierra Canyon Hiking Group
Duke and I haven't hiked with the Sierra canyon Hiking Group since August 14 before our road trip. Today we did a great short hikewith the group. The Bear Lake Loop is in the Gold Lakes Basin which is north of Truckee. The hike goes past Big Bear Lake, Little Bear Lake, Cub Lake, Long Lake, Round Lake and Silver Lake. The weather was cold enough for gloves but the sun was shining and I was thrilled be outside enjoying the trees, the mountains, the lakes and the trail.
If you would like to see all the pictures from the hike you can see them on Flickr here.
Three More Tahoe Rim Trail Hikes
As I've mentioned before some of us from the Sierra Canyon Hiking Group are hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail this summer. Duke and I have missed many of the hikes and we have made up a couple on our own. The trail is 165 miles long and we are hiking it in 8 segments. Duke and I have now done five of the segments and we have three to do. I've blogged about the first two segments that we hiked.
I have not been keeping up with my blogging. There are three more segment hikes that we have now completed so I need to add to the blog.
- The hiking group didn't hike on the July 4th weekend so on July 3rd Dave, Duke and I hiked the segment from Brockway to Tahoe City. It was a nice day and a very long hike. Unfortunately about five miles form the end we missed a turn and got off the Tahoe Rim Trail. We ended the hike about 100 yards down the road form the end of the Tahoe Rim Trail but I guess technically we need to go back and make up the part of the trail that we missed. When the group hiked the trail the following week while we were on vacation they said that last part that we missed was the hardest part. The pictures from the hike are on Flickr here.
- On August 7 after we got back from Iowa Duke and I were back hiking with the group again. We did the 22.8 mile segment from Kingsbury to Big Meadow. The combination of not having hiked in 4 weeks, the distance, lots elevation gain and the heat made this a killer hike. We left home at 5:30 am and got back home at 10 pm. Duke drove so with shuttling the cars he drove 4.5 hours and hiked 10 hours. The best part of this hike was soaking my feet in Star Lake at lunch. Here are my pictures on Flickr from the hike.
- Last Thursday August 14th we hiked the segment from Big Meadow to Echo Lake. It was 17.5 miles and a lot easier than the hike the week before. I didn't take many pictures but the ones I did take are on Flickr here.
Hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail from Mount Rose Summit to Brockway
The last few days the smoke from all the California fires was so bad in Reno that the sun was a weird unearthly shade of mauve. Our hiking group was supposed to hike the Tahoe Rim Trail between Brockway and Tahoe City on Thursday but the hike was canceled because of the smoke.
Duke and I decided to do a section of the Tahoe Rim Trial on our own if the smoke up on the rim wasn’t too bad. We decided to do the section from Mount Rose to Brockway. This section includes the highest Point on the rim trail – Relay Peak at 10,338 feet. When we reached the Mount Rose trail head the smoke was mostly below us. Four miles into the hike on top of Relay Peak looking west into California the smoke formed a dark brown line on the horizon.
For most of the hike we couldn’t see the lake because of the smoke even though this section of the trail is supposed to have tremendous panoramic views. In this next picture you can just make out the outline of the shoreline.
There was still a little bit of snow on some parts of the trail. We filtered water and filled our water bottles from a wonderful spring about a quarter of a mile before Mud Lake. The wild flowers were stunning. Twenty miles is a long way to hike and I was glad when we reached the truck but it was a great day and I really enjoyed the hike. My Flickr pictures of the hike are here.
Poison Oak
I got a bad case of poison oak on the hike we did down to the Yuba River back on May 29. At first I thought maybe I could tough it out but when it kept getting worse and worse and the weeping blisters on my arm became unbearable I ended going to a dermatologist at the Cleveland Clinic while I was there helping my sister recover from her hip surgery.
They put me on a course of steroids of which I have four days left and they told me to use Domeboro astringent solution on my weeping blisters. As far as I am concerned Domeboro is a wonder drug. It immediately dried up the oozing. Part of the reason for this posting is so that I can remember to use the Domeboro sooner the next time I get poison oak.
This isn’t the first time I have had poison oak. I am very sensitive to it. One of the great things about hiking in the High Sierra is that there is no poison oak above a certain altitude.
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