We took our hike to Peak 10450 above Cathedral Lakes on Saturday. We took the climbers trail to Lower Cathedral Lake. The trail looked to be completely unaffected by the winter and there was only a few small patches of snow left. Of course there was more water flowing into the lake than I had seen before but crossing it was not an issue. The meadow to the east of the lake was another story. Meadow didn't describe its current state. Swamp is more applicable. I had anticipated this might be the case so we headed to the south end and we were able to bypass the swamp. We hiked through the forest until we reached the low end of the ridge separating the lower and upper lakes. From there we hiked up the ridge. The image below is taken from that ridge. At one point we saw a group of hikers on the rock slab at the edge of the swamp in the lower part of the image walking back and forth. I could just imagine they were saying "Now what?" I think they gave up and turned around. We took an early lunch just before the last ascent. We didn't know just how to get up there but with some minor rock scrambling, which isn't really my thing, we made it. There's a large flat area on the top. Although we looked all over, we were not able to find the benchmark that I had heard was up there. Although there are tremendous views from up there, there are too many small trees for a 360 degree panorama. There are especially nice views of Tenaya and Tessidder peaks. It was noon and the clouds were gathering so we headed back. We got back to Lower Cathedral Lake before the first thunder started and back to the car by 2 pm with only a few raindrops.
The only issue on the hike was the horrible mosquitos. They were everywhere, even on top of Peak 10450. I expected them in the forest and at the swamp but I never imagined they'd be up on the open granite. I only took a few handheld panoramic images because setting up a tripod was too miserable in a swarm of mosquitos.
Panoramic Images - http://panoramas.aa6g.org/
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2011 09:45AM by Calaveras.