I had never visited this area, and it had been on my "shortlist" for awhile. There were no other cars at the trail-head, and I saw no other people the entire weekend, and no tracks on the trail, except deer, and a fair amount of bear and coyote scat. I hiked in 8 miles to Lost Lake, arriving at 12:30pm, and setup camp. There are some downed trees and blow downs on the trail, some snow patches and drifts beginning at 8000', and all creeks are easily fordable. Grant Grove personnel had told me that no ranger had been in to this area in 2012, and that seems to be the case.
It was rather breezy at Lost Lake on Saturday afternoon, so after getting situated, I decided to take camera and fishing gear for a day-hike up to Ranger Lake. I had time to fish the perimeter of the small lake that had a shallow shoreline, and was not able to get any action. There are reports this lake has fish, so my lack of success doesn't mean it is fish-less. In retrospect, I probably should not have been so hesitant to toss a Kastmaster out to the middle of the lake, where the water had to be deeper, but I figured it would be hard to retrieve without getting snagged. It would have been interesting to be here in the early morning or late afternoon, and see if fish were rising.
RANGER LAKE
Arriving back at Lost Lake around 6:00pm, the fish were rising, and the light was great for photos.
LOST LAKE PM
I quickly caught about 8 brookies, up to 11 inches, and set one aside for dinner. They were not stunted, but a bit on the thin side, but should fatten up by fall. They liked my Panther Martin spinners, but went after my little one inch woolie worm fly even more enthusiastically.
I enjoyed a great night in the quiet, away from the city environment, eating dinner, drinking coffee, and reading "Utah Blaine"(Louis L'Amour) by the firelight. There was light in the sky until 9:00pm.
Next morning, I was up early, wanting to catch the early morning light for photos, and enjoy some more outstanding fishing.
LOST LAKE AM
I broke camp for the day at 8:30am, and headed cross country for my next destination: Upper Sheep Camp Lake. Unfortunately, I only was able to spend an hour or so in this beautiful, probably seldom visited spot, because when you have to go to work the next day, it seems like there is always a schedule, even in the wilderness. I only fished a small part of the lake, and the fish were a bit bigger and meatier here, and I might camp up here someday, and really enjoy this lovely spot.
UPPER SHEEP CAMP LAKE
Next, it was cross country to Lower Sheep Camp Lake, not in sight, but about 325 degrees from the Upper Lake. It was about a 600 foot elevation drop to the lower lake. The upper half was not bad, taking care to circumvent some cliffs, and rock faces, fairly easy going. But the bottom half was a bear, much more difficult to get through than the topo map would indicate. The bottom half was a big talus slide with countless birch and willow trees to get through. I arrived at the lower lake about 1.5- 2 hours later. Lower Sheep Camp is very shallow, and maybe fishless. I think it may be a classic example of a lake that is filling in, and will someday be a meadow. I probably would not repeat this route again, and just backtrack taking the trail. With a full pack, it is doable, but probably not worth the effort. There is a nice closeup view of Ball Dome going this direction.
From the lower lake, it was relatively easy to pick out a route that would intersect and ford the outlet creek of Seville Lake, and then up a few hundred yards to Seville, which appears to be the most heavily used lake in this area.
SEVILLE LAKE
Didn't feel like fishing anymore, ate lunch, took a nap before heading out to the trailhead. Reportedly, the fishing here is about like Lost Lake. I won't post any fish photos so that folks won't be "bored" with pics of fish that are not lunkers.
Leaving Seville about 1:30, I was back to the car about 6:00pm, ending what was one of the better trips I have taken. No people, perfect weather, enough snow left to add a little life to the photos, decent fishing, out of the city, Its all good,
BREAK SPOT
