High Sierra Topix

When we heard they had evacuated the Rangers at Kennedy Mdws, we were pretty sure the hike into Lewis Lks wasn't going to work very well. All that planning while my foot healed and lots of great advice from the pros on this site ... maybe next year. All reports from the NE desolation area looked good, so we payed our $$ and got the permit for Crag Lk and beyond. It's a bit of a drive from Eugene, OR so we motel-ed it for a nice early start Sunday morn. Is 9am early? It was almost noon by the time we got to Meek's bay TH, it didn't look good for much solitude, the parking was nearly full. We were amazed that the creek still had water. The trail crew had been at work, we felt a little better about the $fees. Onward. the first lake (Genavieve) is about 4.5m in and had lots of people (looked like mostly day hikers) the few sites near the outlet looked heavily used. Didn't explore the far side, may be more sites there. On to Crag, what a great surprise. One other party at the other end of Crag. Even in mid Sept. it was swimmable. the next day we day-hiked to Shadow (the other posts had it right, soon to be lilly pads) and on to Stony ridge lake. It was beautiful AND a sandy beach. (It seemed a little colder for swimming tho) We spent most of the day finding trails to the beach and exploring the other side of the lake. One couple on the entire lake! Back to Crag and happy hour. Next day we considered moving to Stony Ridge but decided to explore instead, looked for a level way into Hidden Lake ended up going down from the main trail, I'd say it's not quite as nice as the other lakes and the climb out is short and steep. We headed up to Stony again and got sidetracked looking for sites, had a late lunch and headed up to Rubicon Lk, about .5m from the lake, my foot complained a bit for the first time and the next day was back to the trailhead day, we thought about it for about 5 minutes and decided the smart move was back down: When you're on the + side of 70, it's easier to go for "next time". Anyway, we still had .5l of a great sarah and a lot of hiking at Point Reyes left. (When you drive from Oregon, it's good to have lots of things lined up.) Thanks for all the advice on this incredible site.