Twin Lakes Twin Lakes

Finally made it all the way to Twin Lakes! It's a grueling climb and there are difficult rocky spots (especially when one is clumsy) but the lake is worth it.

Commando and I hung out and I basked my feet in the cold water. I tried a few off trail routes across the granite and may have saved a few inches of effort.

Bassi Creek Again

Drove up on Sunday to the Ice House area of El Dorado National Forest. We took the trail to Red Top and then turned off on the Bassi Loop. It's not a bad trail, although it will be impassible until the snow has completely melted as most of the trail seems to be a seasonal stream. We lounged around at the river and I even took a brief nap.

Commando disgraced himself by chasing a deer. It came so close to me I thought it was going to run right over me. I really need to get him under better control.

Next time I'll go farther up the Red Top trail to where the creek allegedly crosses the trail. The area has some great views of the Crystal Range and I'd like to spend some time memorizing the peaks.

Loon Lake Camping and Hiking

Decided to not be lazy on Saturday so we drove up to the Ice House area of the Eldorado National Forest. I had thought we might camp at the Tells Creek equestrian camp, but it was full. We continued on and checked out Gerle's reservoir and Airport Flat. Gerle's was full. Airport Flat was dusty and had a lot of OHV folks (meaning noise and more dust). We thought that Loon Lake would be full but we managed to get an $8 site overlooking the lake. Nice.

Commando and I did two short hikes. We drove up to the locked gate at Robb's Hut and walked the rest of the way. In camp, we scrambled up a hill overlooking the Valley beginning of the Rubicon jeep trail.

Camp wasn't altogether perfect. There were OHV people here too and they spent a lot of time riding or driving their noisy vehicles up and down the camp road. One guy had his son riding around and around and around on a little mini-bike. The kid could ride, but there's no way I would have let a 5 year old ride unsupervised.

The next day we got up bright and early and by 830 I was on the Loon Lake trail to the Van Vleck trailhead. It's a relatively easy trail although the first 2 miles are a bit of a steep climb. After the big climb there was a small drop then a gradual slope down to the end. I actually got a little lost and took a casual use/old, old logging road back to the trailhead. There was a trail intersection not on the map and no signs at the intersection. I assumed I was farther along than I was and took the left fork. No harm no foul.

When Bees Attack

I was talking to Petra on the phone and just ending the walk with Commando. As I passed through the posts that separate the grass from the asphalt I saw a hole with bees. I didn't think much about it (other than, oh neat, bees) when suddenly I felt the painful stinging on my back. I had a vision of being attacked by billions of bees and became quite alarmed!

I yelled to Petra, "Aaargh, aargh, I have to hang up." Then I hung up and put the phone on the nearby bench and ran a few steps swinging my arms and sort of screaming a little. It really hurt a lot and I still had this mental image of really being viciously savaged by the whole hive.

I heard buzzing and picked a bee off the back of my shirt. Finally it was over. I collected my phone and called Petra back but I just wasn't in the mood to talk.

My back, near the left shoulder was burning and stinging...it was quite painful...much more painful than I remembered from stings as a child.

Guess how many bee stings?

One. One measly little sting. Humph. It's barely a story.

P.S. Commando didn't react act all, other than to follow along with me because he was leashed.

Upper Bassi

I really wasn't in the mood for a hike so decided to go to Bassi Falls. Got a late start and stopped for a map at the Forest Service location near Mills Run.
On the road to the falls, I saw 4 huge vehicles in a row heading up...so much for the peaceful and bucolic reading session I had planned at the falls. I decided to drive up the road further.

The Cheese Camp road was unbarred for the first time ever (for me). This is the road to the Van Vleck cabin and I had snowshoed here with the hound last winter.

It's a narrow paved road. We stopped at the locked gate and moseyed around a little but there wasn't a view and no water. There was a 1 mile trail to Upper Bassi. Drove about 1/4 mile to it. There is a horse campground and it's the Tells Creek trailhead.

The trail is very good. It heads south and very gradually drops (almost level), then takes a somewhat steep plunge, then heads easterly through a marshy area (pretty dry now) and finally starts crossing granite mixed with meadow mixed with more granite.

The creek was barely moving but it had cut quite a channel through the granite. A group of people had already established their turf just downstream so I headed a bit up. I soon found a likely looking pool, took my boots and socks off and waded into it. I had to move slowly because the footing was slimy with moss.

As it turned out, that was a good thing. The pool wasn't big, maybe double king size bed size and wasn't very deep. I was just looking at a likely spot to lean back against the rock when I noticed a very frightened snake poking his head up and desperately hoping none of the interlopers to his home (the human and the pooch) would kill and eat him.

I'm not snake phobic at all but I'm sure I would have jumped and screamed if he slithered across me to escape! I left him to his pool and sat on another rock and finished my water and snack. I noticed it was getting late and got the boots back on to head back.

I did explore briefly up stream and saw that I had missed some really large shady pools! Next time.