I spent a morning climbing up a one mile trail to Crystal Lake, in the town of Mammoth Lakes, where I caught a Golden Trout with my fly rod.
After waking up early in a nearby campground, I ate a quick breakfast and drove to the trailhead parking lot near Lake George. It wasn’t a big lot, so I’m glad I got there before 7am. I tossed a liter of water and my fishing gear into a small daypack and headed out for the Mammoth Crest Trail, which intersected the Crystal Lake Trail after one mile of uphill hiking. The side trail to the lake was only a quarter mile long.
I met two rock climbers getting ready to summit Crystal Crag, an obviously climbable chunk of upthrust granite that looked down upon its namesake lake. It didn’t take long before they passed me, as they were young and fast. The big group of similarly-slow dudes was another matter entirely. They were hiking just close enough to my speed that we ended up leapfrogging each other. Their dust clouds were large enough that I finally had to put on a burst of speed to stay in the lead. A couple of them had fishing rods, so we talked fly fishing. Some of them had spinning reels and lures, which is a world apart from fly fishing. I was the only one with a Tenkara Fly Rod. Guy Talk happened. We even got lost together, when the trail made a sharp turn and we kept hiking forward, on crazy steep rocks. We all had a moment of male bonding while figuring out where that darned trail had got itself off to.
It took less than an hour to reach the lake. I found a fine spot to take a bunch of photos. Crystal Crag was across the way, looking impressive. There were still traces of melting snow, high in the northeast-facing clefts along the Mammoth Crest. The morning light was fine, shining brightly on the western shore, and the air was calm enough that I got some good reflections. Photographers love this early light and the calm of dawn. Fishermen love the dawn because that’s when the trout rise to the surface to catch flying insects. As a fishing photographer, it was Win-Win.
I headed left initially, across the outlet creek, in search of a good fishing spot. The other hikers followed me. Soon there were no fishing spots left. I decided to head to the sunny shore, which had fairly steep sides, indicating that the lake might be deeper, too. The shady side was probably better for staying in the shadows, so as not to spook the trout, but I didn’t really care whether I caught anything or not. If Vicki were here, she would be happy to eat one, but I was only going to throw it back.
Anyway, I set down my pack and got my rod into order. I cast out a few times, but nothing happened. I moved along the shore to a new spot that had a ledge with a drop-off. Bang! Got one! It didn’t take long to haul it in, as it was pretty small, as Goldens tend to be. I went down to the water, wet my hand (to protect the slime coating on the fish), and carefully removed the hook. After taking a photo, of course. It was a Golden Trout. This was the only lake in the Mammoth Lakes area that contained a breeding population of goldens, according to my internet sources. It was probably a Golden/Rainbow Hybrid, in reality, but it looked more like a golden than not.
Unfortunately, I only had time to catch that one fish. I had other places to go that day, I came here because I had the opportunity, for once. This lake has been on my list of lakes to visit for years and years.
On the way back down the trail I was shown some lovely views out over the Mammoth Lakes Basin. Lake George was directly below me, down a very steep slope, and large Lake Mary was out in the distance beyond it, shining in the morning sunlight. The hike to Crystal Lake was worth it if only for this view.
All in all, this hike took me about two hours to complete, and I even had time to do a bit of fishing. The trail was fairly steep, but not impossible for most hikers to do. Truly a great dayhike in the Mammoth Lakes area.
For a topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the trek see my Flickr Page
hikingtales.com 