THIS TRIP IS ABOUT HIKING

We continued the theme of this adventure by hiking just about every day.  We took a hike up Horse Creek from Twin Lakes near Bridgeport.  We've hiked here before, but the views are great so we did it one more time.  Horse Creek is one of the few places in California, especially in the Eastern Sierra, were there are beaver. About 3 miles up the trail is a large beaver pond.  I've been there before, but I don't remember a beaver pond, so perhaps they moved in the past couple of years.



TWIN LAKES

TUFA TOWERS AT MONO LAKE

Just outside of Yosemite near Tioga Pass, Mt Warren (12,327 ft) was on my list of a peaks to climb.  The only problem was that I didn't have a good description of what route to take to get to the summit.  I knew where to start and had seen some photos of others who made the summit, so I figured it was a go.  I had my GPS figuring it would help me to the top, but I soon found out that the route I selected didn't seem right.  Long story short, I never made it to the summit.  But I learned two things.  One, the next time I attempt it I believe I've got the route figured out.  The second was that all important information about the bears.

The above photo was taken on my Warren attempt.  The pointy mountain in the distance is Mt Dana which I climbed last year.

After a week hiking around and in Yosemite, we decided to move camp down to Bishop to be closer to some trail heads there.





Wanting to make it to the top of at least one mountain on this trip, we opted to climb Trail Peak.  It doesn't look like much in the photo, but at 11,600 feet, the elevation makes makes it challenging.  The hike starts out easy enough on a trail, but to reach the top, it's off trial for the steepest and last third of the climb.

Last year I made a solo climb up to the summit and figured it was time for Cathie to make it to the top.  It was pretty slow going, but she made it.

Without a cloud in the sky the views were stupendous in all directions.  We ate lunch on the summit and signed the register before heading back down.  Down is definitely easier than up.

The happy hikers on the summit.

CATHIE ENJOYING THE VIEW



We took an easy hike up Little Lakes Valley to Chicken Foot Lake.  This is a  popular hiking trail out of Rock Creek Canyon.  With little elevation change, it invites families to explore.  For us it was a great change of pace, enabling us to take a nice stroll.  We did see a lot of people though.

NATURES RECLINER

THE VIEW AT CHICKEN FOOT LAKE

For our last hike we picked another short (6 miles) hike to Treasure Lakes.  Although not considered strenuous, after hiking 10 days out of the past 12, it wasn't long before we knew it was time for a break.  On the way back to the trail head, the up hill sections were really affecting us.  We were pooped so we decided to head home the next day.  We will be back!

ONE OF THE TREASURE LAKES