High Sierra Topix

dave54 wrote: Reputedly there is good fishing in Snag if you get out on the water and fish the depths. Fishing from shore is so-so. The NPS stopped stocking the lakes in the 80s, but the residual trout population is self-sustaining. Could not find any bathymetry for Snag. Possibly never done. It does not get much fishing pressure because of the hiking involved, and getting a yak, canoe, or float tube there requires a portage on your shoulder. Wilderness -- no carts.

Hiking from the roads end is 5 miles, but if you paddle to the south end of Butte Lake and hike from there it is only 2.5 miles. That is a long way to portage on your shoulders for just a couple days of fishing.

I saw one old map that showed the trail as a road. Not true. Never was a road. Just a map misprint.

yeah.. still fun to play with the polygon feature

After you posted, I also looked around to see if the radar systems (in space) are able or doing anything about lake volume/depth/etc. Guess it depends on the radar and the desire to do so.

I know they were doing snow depth surveys with LIDAR via plane this year.

TahoeJeff wrote:Can you park at the north end of Juniper lake and hike north? Looks like a trail west of Inspiration point and Cameron meadow ending at the southeast corner of Snag. Only +/- 3.5 miles?

Yes. That is another route. Or hike to Horseshoe Lake. Good fishing there.

The larger lakes in the adjacent Caribou Wilderness also have fish. But wait until Late Aug/Sept/Oct to go hiking there this year. The principle wildlife in the Caribou is the mosquito. You need to hike with your pockets and pack filled with rocks or they will carry you off. Go late summer/fall after a good frost. LAVO is not as bad.

Just measured acme.mapper screen capture into Photoshop.

Snag Lake 123878 pixels = 790 acres = 1.23 square miles
Thousand Island Lake 93571 pixels = 597 acres
Duck Lake 63935 pixels = 408 acres
Desolation Lake 61519 pixels = 392 acres
Wanda Lake 48931 pixels = 312 acres

Duck Lake being deep might have the greatest water volume of Sierra wilderness lakes.

Aloha might be a contender

paul wrote:Aloha might be a contender

Except that it should have more properly been named Aloha Reservoir so does not register as an actual "lake".

Its large surface area is more the result of its dam versus the small ponds and small lakes that once filled that basin. Many decades ago pioneers built small concrete dams on many small high country lakes of streams that would otherwise go dry in late summer, for extra storage. In late summer would gradually drop the level of the over flow gate on such dams and thus provide downstream water for drinking, farming, and trout in rivers. The shore edges of our mountain lakes are their most important biology zone. Such small dams in many cases created ugly dead shore zones with brown rings though most of the shoreline dead trees have long since decayed and fell.

http://www.reno4x4.com/forum/attachment ... 1246155610

Isn't Emigrant (and Huckleberry) in the Emigrant Wilderness bigger than Aloha?