On our second day in the Twin Lakes Basin, we dayhiked around lower Twin Lake, passed by Upper Twin Lake, checked out Boomerang Lake, and ate lunch at Island Lake, after which I successfully caught several Brook Trout, which Vicki happily ate for dinner.
I woke up that morning at first light. I grabbed my camera and went outside to capture some alpenglow photos. I discovered that it was already breezy, rippling the lake’s surface, so there were no reflections. But there was alpenglow, so at least that part worked.
Vicki had already gone back to sleep, while I was wide awake, what with the cold, blowing air. I quietly reached into my backpack and pulled out my fly rod. Maybe, if I was lucky, I could surprise Vicki with a fresh trout for breakfast! After last night’s tough hike, she deserved a treat. So I rigged the line and pole, and set out for the shore. There were several spots where fishing looked likely, where the surface was calmer, the water was deep, and there weren’t many tree branches around to snag my hook.
It didn’t take long before I exclaimed “Got one!” and hauled the sorry fish in to shore. Vicki must’ve heard me, because she appeared almost immediately. She grabbed a ziploc baggie from her pack and soon enough, the trout was alive inside it, along with some lake water. It turned out that she already had some oatmeal ready for me to eat! No one likes cold, rock-hard oatmeal, so that was the end of fishing, for now. We headed back to camp to eat. Vicki was happy to have the fish, and told me not to bother catching a second one. One was perfect. And I have to admit that I was happy, too, after having caught nothing and getting no bites the past week in other parts of the wilderness.
After that, it was time to plan our day. We looked at the map, and decided to be a bit adventurous. We had all day to spend hiking in the basin, after all. We decided to head cross-country to the east of lower Twin Lake and cross the narrow creek that drained out of upper Twin Lake. Then we would join the main Twin Lakes Trail and visit Island Lake at the far end of the basin. Armed with a plan, we put some water, lunch, snack, and the ten essentials (meaning my fishing gear) into my mostly empty backpack, and away we hiked.
The cross-country part was strenuous, but fun. There was an entire hillside full of large talus and boulders along the route, with some fun scrambling and some exciting rock hopping. It was slow, of course, but we really enjoyed it.
When we reached the very short creek between the lakes, we discovered that it was flowing well enough that we had to put on our water shoes to cross it. This seemed like fun, and we discovered that the water felt good on our hot feet. Then we sat on boulders and dried everything off. We noticed the remains of an old cemented dam-like structure that was only a foot or two tall. This is typical of the Desolation Wilderness, where keeping a lake a bit higher meant holding a bit of extra water up here in the high country. They no longer are being maintained, from what I could see.
As long as I was here, it was time to test the fishing in upper Twin Lake. And it was good! I caught a couple of Brookies in no time. I was using barbless flies, so it was easy to let the fish go without lasting damage, ready to be captured by an even hungrier fisherman another day.
Then it was time to head on up the basin to Island Lake. We joined up with the main Twin Lakes Trail just north of there and continued east. Along the way, we got some seriously nice views of the waterfall and upper Twin Lake.
The main trail passed by a small lake, and when I checked my GPS it said that it was called Boomerang Lake. As you might expect, it was shaped roughly like a boomerang. It turned out that there were several small lakes in a chain along the trail, and all of them were full this year. Very pretty.
Island Lake was our official destination for the day, and it certainly had some islands in it. This lake sat within the upper section of the Twin Lakes Basin, and was surrounded on three sides by the steep granite walls of the Crystal Range. We stopped for a break on a nice slab and got out our lunch. Vicki read her book and looked up occasionally as I tried my hand at fly fishing once again. This time I had zero luck. I wondered if it were fishless, as there was no way that a trout could have swum up that waterfall below the lake. Regardless of why, I had no luck catching anything.
After that, the easy part of the day arrived. Vicki was happy once more, as the trail led downhill the entire way. And the surroundings were beautiful, as expected. This time we stayed on the main trail all the way. No more talus hopping for us today!
Eventually, the trail crossed the outflow creek from the lower lake. There were plenty of stones for hopping. I also noticed the remains of what must have been a low dam, just like on the upper lake. This one was gone, or at least it wasn’t acting as a dam any longer. After crossing, I remembered to set down the pack and fill the two water jugs.
Then we continued onward to camp. The tent was hot out there in the baking sun, so we found a shady tree with a view of the lake and a good boulder to sit on. We read our books for a while. This is the kind of lazy day I envisioned when I first planned this set of hikes. One day in to set up a base camp, one day to hike around and check things out, and a final day to hike back down. I planned to do this in three different parts of the wilderness, but the rain got in the way. Oh well. I still liked the idea, and might try it again another time.
I eventually got bored with sitting on my butt. I got out the Tenkara pole again, and made another effort. I was rewarded with three fine Brookies! I kept them in the water on a stringer until it was time to bring them to Vicki for cooking and cleaning. She was delighted. Three small trout could provide a decent amount of meat, and certainly enough for a meal. Now, every trout has the same number of bones, and the bones are where the primary effort lies, so it was better to catch fewer larger fish if possible. But today, in this lake, I had to take what I could get. Vicki didn’t complain.
After dinner, we checked out the map. Our plan for tomorrow was to return to the car, but on the way we wanted to try a different route, once which passed by the Enchanted Pool. This sounded like a great goal, whether we saw the pool or not. We also decided that we could sleep late if we wanted, as it was all downhill, and we were in no big rush. This was what relaxing in the Sierra was all about. No deadlines, no rush, plenty of fish, and the hiking was all downhill. We could get used to that.
For a topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the trek see my Flickr Page
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