The "Lakes" Trail

My buddy Steve and a bunch of people from his church invited myself and my brother-in-law Matt out to do a training hike to prepare for our big hike to Mt. Whitney this year. I'll post pics here and explain the trip as we go... come on.

The Trail Head. Notice the arrow? That's our destination!

We've got 10.2 miles of hiking ahead of us.... so, lets go!

This is the right behind the sign above. This is where it allllll begins!

Matt being a goof. He wasn't all smiles for much longer

after this. He was wearing brand new boots that hadn't been

properly broken in...  he was in some pain! :)

We're at the lower elevations here and Matt and I were just in awe

of the ground growth. So many ferns, flowers and other

ground covers. It was really cool but before long we'll be high above the timberline!

This is water crossing number 2 for us so far but we really enjoyed

this spot and took a moment for a picture.

Then about 2 minutes later I fell in the water...

not bad but I soon found out that my boots are as advertised...

WATER PROOF!!

Soon after Matt and I were just minding our own business 

and this deer runs literally like 7 -8 feet past Matt!

We both kinda freaked out cause it was so out

of the blue and I was using my little point and shoot

so it was tuff to get a good pic.

See the red cloud? That's where we PARKED! We're really

gaining some elevation now...

Coming out of the timbers now! 

Once we came out the tree line we came to this place called

"The "Watch Tower".  Matt and I we're both AMAZED by

this place. It was beautiful and you could literally

walk out to the edge of these huge granite slabs.

It was a bit scary but soooo worth it.

Once we left the watch tower we were immediately

hiking along this super cool stretch of trail. It was my favorite part of the hike

for sure but it was also the most technical section too. We had to be

very careful through here as to not get too close to the edge

or it was...bye bye

There was also all these really cool trees along the hike.

I was noticing how they all had this cool twist to them but

I have no idea how they became like this.

Matt taking a break along the cool section...  we're almost to

the first lake now!

We've arrived at the first lake, Heather Lake. By this point we are

pretty tired but we still have about a mile to go to get to 

the second lake!

Heather Lake...  notice the snow still on the mountain?

Fortunately is was a beautiful day and it stayed nice and cool

and didn't get too hot at all.

Another view of the higher mountains. This snow wont be 

here in a few weeks for sure.

There's our destination. Just a short, very tuff, climb down now.

Now what do we do? I guess turn around and go home.

The hike on the way out seemed MUCH longer then what it took

us to get to Emerald Lake. Maybe because we talked a bunch on the way up

and on the way down we were all pretty tired.

It really was a perfect trip. There was a bear sighting but not by our party. I did get a gnarly blister on the back of my foot but nothing a little Neosporin and a band aid can't fix. Matt and I are going to attempt Half Dome next month so I can't wait for that one now.

Thanks for looking!