This particular Sunday the weather was predicted to be 60's and rainy.... the day fulfilled those predictions to the tee. We made the decision to head out anyway and go for a smaller, easy trail. Strawberry Lake fit the bill... of course we thought the weather would deter other hikers and we may have the trail primarily to ourselves. Well, sure called that wrong. The trail head was completely full, 8 or more vehicles including two horse trailers and we managed to run into every single one.
It was a great mix of groups including families, dirt bikers and a pack train. The first portion of the trail, which is about a mile, is a decent elevation gain with many switch backs.
At one point a small pack train and some dirt bikers crossed paths... It could have been a less than ideal scenario. In this case tension was little high on the horses (and mules) part but thankfully the equestrians were experienced and the dirt biker were considerate.
As we made it to the point in the trail where we hit piles of snow last time we tried it, it looked like a completely different trail!
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The lake is stunning, we walked up a bit of the trail that leads to Wildcat lake in order to get a view.
The trail onward was full of very slushy snow and we decided to turn back, Strawberry lake was our goal anyway.
DISTANCE
6.73 mi
ELEVATION GAIN
2700 ft
TOTAL TIME
03:22:23
AVERAGE SPEED
3.71 mph
MOVING TIME
01:48:41
MAX SPEED
8.57 mph
This is an ideal trail for a novice/beginner hiker or someone with children.
Until next time!
Happy trails and Happy Fourth of July!
How pristine! Those lake pictures are fantastic! Compared to the mountain lakes down in S. Cal there is so much more foliage. Are they considered "Old Growth"?.
ReplyDeleteIt sure is. I can only imagine, I've never made it to California myself but it looks like there is some beautiful country there :)
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