East Sierra Trip - Twin Lakes - September 2022

Walk Three - Buckeye Creek

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On the third day, first we drove a short distance to check out Buckeye Creek hot springs, reachable by a 100 ft. drop on a paved trail.  Barb and JKathy & John visited here later, after the hike, to try the hot springs.

Then we drove a few miles to a trailhead at about 7,200 ft.  It was an easy walk today with minimal gain. The hardest part was walking in sometimes deep sandy soil. 

Scenic vistas opened up with distance.

	Barb's car		start of the hike		sandy road through the woods
	ancient aspen				all of us
		the walk continues...
			attractive mixed fir & aspen woods

Eventually the hikers wanted to find the creek & just then a well-used single track appeared that lead us to the shady banks of Buckeye Creek, where we soon found a spot to have lunch. 

	looking for the creek		Buckeye Creek		looking upstream
		a fast-moving, shallow creek w/occasional deep pools

After lunch we meandered downstream, off-trail for a while before climbing uphill and re-joining the main sandy trail, where we caught up with Rich. 

Today we walked about five miles, with a few hundred feet of gain, a good recovery day for me, and, sitting by a fast-moving Sierra creek for awhile was a high point.     

Back at the cabins there were sufficient leftovers for Rich's cabin group to have dinner around 6 pm, while I had a private meal of leftovers at my cabin. 

I had chopped some wood and built a fire earlier, in preparation for an evening gathering, but winds at dusk never slowed down, so at 7 pm we called it a night. I enjoyed reading again that night for a few hours. 

Later I heard that Rich & his dinner party gave an extra pizza they had ordered from the Resort kitchen to a recently arrived next door cabin neighbor. Similarly, I gave the next occupant of my cabin a completely built fire, with a newspaper & stick structure, only needing a single match to get it going, and there were enough support pieces to keep a modest fire going for an hour. 

Thus, our last night there involved giving gifts to unknown recipients, not a bad ending to another great fall hiking venture ! 

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Here are photos from others -

Diane
Rich
Barb
		Barb at Buckeye Creek hot springs

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Aspen trees & their fall colors - we were told by Twin Lakes resort staff that we were only a few weeks away from the  peak fall coloration period, as shown below, from the Mono Lake area.

Postscript - For our group it was a another great trip to the eastern Sierra, and another scenic drive down Hwy 395 & back, including twice over Monitor Pass on hwy 89, a very scenic drive.  

Everything associated with hiking for three days flowed like water, and I had many good conversations out on the trail.

Thanks to all who attended !      

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