High Sierra Topix

A last minute decision, so Freddog and I didn't arrive until 8 am and found the parking lot nearly full and the temperature already warmer than I like. And I had to carry extra water for him as I knew the switchbacks would be hot and dry. Groan. Just a few minutes up the trail we met a nice young man and his adorable 7 year old daughter returning from 2 nights at Flower Lake with a side trip over Kersarge pass. These were the ONLY people we would see or hear until mid afternoon,when we were headed down. We stopped at every lake for quite some time on the way up to Matlock and its surrounding lakelets, no signs of anyone camping or even fishing. I was surprised at the number and diversity of wildflowers, including shooting stars, owls clover, monkshood and many different bright yellow varieties, and at the number of waterfalls we could see and hear in this very dry year. Gilbert looked as full as it could be. Matlock was full of huge tadpoles , and a water ouzel, or dipper, was working the rocks. There was not even one mosquito anywhere! To top it off, coming home I picked up a beautiful kingsnake stretched across the road on one of the hairpin turns, he would have been run over for sure.

A nice report. Must suck to be able to dayhike the east side.

Pics would be good as well if you carry a cam.

Funny story about snakes. Was behind an 18 wheeler in Petaluma the other day. He did a great job of missing the snake crossing the road also stretched out "running" as fast as it could. I made a slight right correction at 50mph and missed it as well. Lucky snake. Looked behind me to make sure no one else was getting there anytime soon.

Thanks for the enyoyable TR! Day hikes can be quite inspirational
and great primers for longer excursions.

Funny, I was day hiking Kearsarge Pass Trail on Wed too! It was a hot afternoon on the exposed trail from the TH but the lakes were SO worth it! Surprised we didn't run into you. We were hiking with a dog, she loved the lakes. Such a beautiful place.

We did run into hikers with a lab or retriever on our way back down in the afternoon, but had the trail and lakes to ourselves until about 2 when we started running into many hikers and backpackers coming up. Little Lakes Valley tomorrow, hoping to beat the crowds again with a 6 am start.