Category: Sierra Canyon Hiking Group

It was an absolutely perfect day to hike today. The sun was shining and the air was cool but not cold. The Sierra Canyon Hiking Group hiked up into Cold Stream Valley South of Donner Lake. We parked at the same place we did for the Tinker Knob Hike a couple of weeks ago. For that hike we had snow and fog. Today was just the opposite. There was no snow left. The gate was closed on Coldstream Road off of Interstate 80 so we accessed the trail by driving through Donner Memorial State Park.

For much of the hike we were on the old railroad bed that you can see from Interstate 80. We passed the entrance to the railroad tunnel under Mount Judah and then came to the entrance to the old snow sheds where we had lunch overlooking Donner Lake. The whole hike was about 6 miles. Here are some of my pictures and the rest can be seen on Flickr here.

The entrance to the railroad tunnel under Mount Judah

 

The entrance to an abandoned snow shed

The snow shed was pitch black on the inside.

Lunch break overlooking Donner Lake

The Sierra Canyon Hiking Group Thursday hike was to Mount Lola. At 9,143 feet I believe Mount Lola is the highest peak between Mount Lassen and Mount Rose. We hiked up from Henness Pass Road off of Highway 89. The hike was 5.3 miles each way with 2,500 feet of elevation gain. It was  a very easy to walk on trail but the trail did go steadily up, up , up. The quiet and color on the way up were the kinds that make me love hiking.

The 360 degree view from the top was stupendous as you can see here.

As we reached the top a single hiker arrived from the south. Apparently you can also drive a rough dirt road  to Independence Lake and have a much shorter hike to the top from the south.

There were only four of us on the hike and the solo hiker took a picture for us.

If you would like to see al the pictures of the hike please click here.

Monday the Sierra Canyon Hiking Group hiked at Lake Tahoe. We hiked along the east side of Lake Tahoe from Chimney Beach north to Secret Harbor. I’m not sure exactly where we turned around but we hiked a total of just under 5 miles. The beaches were all deserted and it was a wonderful day.  Here are a few of the pictures of the hike. On our way back it rained a bit and you can see four of us in our rain gear. I’m the one in blue. I put the rest of the pictures from the hike on Flickr. You can see them by clicking on these words..

The Sierra Canyon Hiking Group hike today was the 7.5 mile round trip to the Loch Leven Lakes. It was an absolutely beautiful day – warm with a cool breeze. According to all my hiking books this is a very popular hike. The trail head is right of of Highway 80 at the Rainbow Road exit. The three lakes were absolutely stunning. We sat on a rock in the sun by the lake to eat our lunch.

Afterward we stopped at the Rainbow Lodge for beer. This group of people is so much fun to hike with.

If you would like to see all the pictures of the hike you can see them here.

I haven’t hiked for two weeks so today’s hike was hard but beautiful. There was lots of snow which made the hiking hard. Especially going up.

To get to the Coldstream Trail trailhead we took the Donner pass Road exit off of I80. We followed a gravel road to the east of the Donner State Park Camp ground. We went quite a ways on this road until we came to a horseshoe bend in the railway tracks where we parked, crossed the tracks and headed up. In about half a mile we passed Lost Trail Lodge which looks like a wonderful place to stay.

From there we headed through forest for several miles. The trail was covered in snow. it was fun to see all the animal tracks. There were coyote, deer and rabbits tracks and several others we weren’t sure about. Hiking in the snow was hard work but we had the trail to ourselves and the temperature was around 40 so it wasn’t too cold.

We were heading south towards Tinker’s Knob. We made it to 8250 feet at the ridge before the final climb to Tinker’s Knob. It was drizzling and gray so there was no view. the snow kept getting deeper so we decided to turn back. I think we did about 6 miles total.

Here we are near the top. I am  the one with the white pants.  If you want to see all the pictures of this hike they are here.