While the early plans were for a day hike in the Bay Area, we somehow ended up heading towards Yosemite for a day hike.
After waiting for the Hetch Hetchy entrance gate to open, we were soon on the trail, heading up the Beehive switchbacks.
Even at the top of the switchbacks there's still a lot of climbing to do.
Near the "Frog Ponds" we decided to head directly to Laurel Lake, since no trail heads there directly from the Hetch Hetchy direction.
Frog Creek was crossable, either on log or via a waist-deep wade. The water was not at all cold.
Eventually we reached the lake's shore. After an impromptu puncture repair--fortunately noticed near shore--the fleet was underway.
We slowly crossed to the other side and were eating lunch when we heard "whoop!"s from E and A, who had spent the night near Lake Vernon.
After an unsuccessful search for an alternate landing site--the lake's level was high enough to be flooding what would otherwise be beaches--we returned to our launch site and chatted with E and A as we dried and packed the boats.
We decided to return via the "longer" route while they chose a more direct path, so we parted ways. During our descent to Miguel Meadows we could see Lake Eleanor.
We had to re-cross Frog Creek--this time, there were no logs, so it was wading all the way.
Many colorful and fragrant flowers greeted us as we entered the area burnt out by the Rim Fire.
We took a short detour to Gravel Pit Lake--a former sand quarry for the raising of the Hetch Hetchy dam, and now home to numerous large frogs.
We took a marshy shortcut of types to the former location of the Miguel Meadows barn.
Not much remained of the ranger station--although the structure had been cleared of all the items that had burned in the cabin.
On the way back, we took a detour to "Condon", a high point north of the dam. Along the way we saw a remnant from the dam's construction.
The views from the high point were impressive--not unlike those from various high Yosemite overlooks, excepting the reservoir, of course.
After a scramble to return to the former-road-now-trail, JKW and
raced back to the car as the sun sat on Hetch Hetchy valley.
JKW won the race.
More Pictures
