Despite the heat of Bishop I woke to frost on my car windshield at North Lake. It was a chilly morning but I quickly warmed up as I hiked up the side of the mountain towards the pass that you can see in the distance in the above photo. Trail was in the sun and basically snow free until just before Loch Leven. Just below Loch Leven it was very snowy and a little hard to navigate but I made it to an icy Loch Leven. From there on I was hiking intermittently in the snow. The lakes were beautiful with the icy covers. I saw a marmot here and there and one brave camping backpacker tucked away in his tent.
I worked my way up to the pass in the distance occasionally post holing into the snow. At one point my leg went down but when it came up my shoe was stuck. I had to reach down and pull it out with my hand. I am super glad I got it back. It would have been a chilly return to the base without footwear. I eventually made my way to the pass and looked over the snowy backside to see Summit lake (see image below).
The next morning I decided to try and hike to Treasure Lakes. I knew there would be snow and this is a trickier hike as I had never been there before so navigation would be more challenging. There were a few tricky areas to navigate but I was pretty much on track and was almost to the upper lake when I began to post hole with each step. I needed snow shoes. The microspikes were not going to cut it. I decided to turn back as I was the only person around and I didn't want to get into a dangerous situation. I worked my way back without incident except for one post hole all the way up to my upper thigh. I did get this nice reflection shot while I was up there.
I am heading to Las Vegas for a couple of days. From there I will try to do a couple of hikes in Utah and then head to Colorado for two weeks of training and very little hiking. More adventures to come.
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