2023 Fall Trip - Day 12-of-21 - Sept 18, 2023

Monday, Sept. 18, 2023 - Since yesterday's "under 10 miles" hike worked out so well, let's do something like that again! There are a ton of trails out here (I did my homework last winter), and it looks like one very nice trail is Lamarck Lakes (4.6 miles out-and-back, taking 3 hours, and has a rating of 4.6 out of 5.0) - It starts just west of Bishop:

The map on the top is from AllTrails, and the map on the bottom is from caltopo.com:

After so many GREAT breakfasts, I just want to give a final shout-out to Jack's:

Nice to see a little Civic Pride:

It was easy getting up into North Lake Campground:

Pay attention, because the "Trailhead Parking Lot" is 1/2-mile before The Trailhead:

It is a nice walk up the road, at 11:15

pretty easy finding the trail at The Trailhead:

It is nice making my way through the forest and streams:

After hiking up through The Woods, you get a nice break-out view:

It is a BEAUTIFUL DAY here in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains! At 1 PM I reached Lower Lamarck Lake, and stopped for lunch:

From here, things kind of got a little off-track:

From "lunch at Lower Lamarck Lake", I went up-and-over a hill for a better view. I could see "My trail" continuing off in the distance:

I went down to the trail, which I followed up to the "5" on my map above. Here it (unmarked) crossed Lamarck Creek:

One of the main rules in hiking (for Dennis) is "DON'T GET IN TROUBLE!" One really good way to avoid "getting in trouble" is to always be able to turn around and go back the way you came. Since this is pretty wide-open-country, you can't get lost, or lose the trail you are walking on. So I kept following "This Trail" (I figured it would take me up to overlook Upper Lamarck Lake. But both AllTrails and caltopo show this "other trail" continuing south, away from Upper Lamarck Lake:

But it was a really nice hike:

The trail ran into an un-tracked snowfield, so I knew this was not where I wanted to be. I turned around and took a picture down the valley:

Looking north, I saw where I could scramble up to The Lake (after grabbing a rock from "where the trail ends"):

7 minutes later I had scrambled up that ridge - only to find another ridge!

Pretty nature/texture/stone:

My first view of Upper Lamarck Lake:

It is fun to see how I got there, especially when you swich to "satellite view" and see the snowfields:

A Wonderful Place:

As you can see from my maps, I did some figuring-out up on the ridge. I couldn't tell if there was "a trail" down by the water - and it is REALLY DANGEROUS to go down to the water if there is no trail down there - it's like getting ledged with icy water right below you! So I kept going right-and-up on the ridge:

Eventually I was able to LOOK DOWN and SEE THE TRAIL:

I made my way down and headed home. My last look back at Upper Lamarck Lake:

Once again - some wonderful pictures on my way down:

GREAT HIKE - 7.06 miles in 5 hours 6 minutes:

Not much in the way of "guard rails" on my way back to Bishop:

I drove 42 miles today. Thank you God again for this Wonderful Hiking Day - AND FOR THESE GREAT 7 DAYS IN BISHOP!

Just so you don't think that I have exhausted the hiking trails out here in Bishop - The 6 Trails tagged in Pink are the ones I did this trip:

Music for today:

The Who - The Kids Are Alright, 1979 double album, mostly live - excellent live version of "Won't Get Fooled Again":