Lake Margaret- June '24

return to index

Five of us drove to Lake Margaret, on Hwy 88, near Kirkwood, at elev. 7,500 ft., to go for a hike. This is in the general Silver Lake - Caples Lake - Carson Pass area, long familiar to most of today's hikers. 

Once pristine & lovely woods here were devastated in 2021 by the Caldor fire, which torched 221,835 acres of Sierra Nevada forest in El Dorado, Alpine & Amador Counties. For 35 miles, the scenery we saw before reaching the trailhead was pretty grim, starting just uphill from Jenkinson Lake.  

Apparently it took two summers of cleanup work to re-establish the walking trail here, because of so many downed trees. It was good to see that some small pockets of original woods remained, like at the Lake.

It was a day of visual contrast, with charred logs & spring flowers.  

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again (not on smartphones). 

	at the trailhead		Little Round Top at 9,594 ft. in the distance		heading downhill
		3 yrs. since the fire		red elderberry		well-placed stepping stones
					more downhill
		on the trail		Jean & Kathy in open meadow		granitic dome
	alpine columbine		False Solomon's seal		Lake Margaret, from left to right
				group photos		a colorful bunch

note - Kathy, Jean, Donna, myself & Rick

Once at the lake we sat on rocks or trees, in a small & healthy woods, and had lunch. Variable ground breezes kept us cool.

We were surrounded by granite topography, in all directions, and Lake Margaret looked so clean & alive, in contrast with so much fire-damaged landscape.   

	horse mint		butterfly, see note 1		Kathy leading us on the trail
		see note 2
	Golden Brodiaea		Mountain pride penstemon

note 1 - This is probably a female Northern Checkerspot. (ref: National Audubon Society Field Guide to California, 2000 edition)

note 2 - on the horizon are familiar Carson Pass - Lake Winnemucca features, like Round Top (10,381 ft.) to the right, and Elephant's Back (9,581 ft.) to the left.

It was a good walk, with plenty of elevation changes & no shortage of ankle-twisting potential, including minor rock-scrambling, but we all made it out & back, and no one fell off a log & into the creek.

There were six creek crossings on logs, and our confidence improved with each one.

We hiked about 5 miles, with 500+ ft. of gain. 

return to index

Postscript -  Driving back, Jean said it was a little harder today because of warmer than normal conditions, for the elevation, the result of a 107 deg. F day below, in the Sacramento Valley. 

Walkers naturally took more breaks & had more liquids than normal. My usual bike bottle w/water plus two 14 oz (Nalgene) french roasts were almost gone by the time we reached the cars.      

This was the group's first hike in the mountains this year, a great day out.  

return to index