Grouse Ridge
last weekend I went hiking at grouse ridge with another hiking buddy from the yolohiker club. it's north of HWY20/I-80 in the tahoe national forest. in order to get to the grouse ridge trailhead, you have to follow a dirt road for about 6miles, which took 40mins. this road takes you to the grouse ridge camp ground and access to the trail head from which you can hike to many destinations.
we chose to hike to glacier lake, which involves descending into a valley and then going back up another ridge. this trail was nice and well marked. we met lot's of hikers coming from glacier lake, including a group of search and rescue dog handlers who were practicing in the area. we finally made it to glacier lake, which was a total delight. we stopped for lunch. I decided to hike up to the saddle over the snow fields, which I presume are the left overs from the "glacier" after which the lake was named. the hike up the saddle was streneous and tricky, since the snow/ice fields had pockets near the edges. the view at the saddle was worth the short jaunt. after coming back down, I took a dip in the lake, which was really cold !
there is a nother trail back along sandy ridge, but it wasn't obvious and we asked some of the other people we met for directions. their directions were pretty murky too. after some stumbling, we stumbled on the right trail and headed back out, meeting a boys scout troop and a group of trail horse riders complete with mules to carry gear.
my friend went home, and I stayed in the area planning to do some backpacking on the other trails. our day hike took a little longer then expected, so by the time it got dark I wasn't too far into the next hike. I had intended to hike to a place called baltimore site. after spending the night on an overlook to lake spaulding I hiked some more, but when it was clear that there was not enough time to make it out and back before the end of the day, I turned around and hiked back out.
last weekend I went hiking at grouse ridge with another hiking buddy from the yolohiker club. it's north of HWY20/I-80 in the tahoe national forest. in order to get to the grouse ridge trailhead, you have to follow a dirt road for about 6miles, which took 40mins. this road takes you to the grouse ridge camp ground and access to the trail head from which you can hike to many destinations.
we chose to hike to glacier lake, which involves descending into a valley and then going back up another ridge. this trail was nice and well marked. we met lot's of hikers coming from glacier lake, including a group of search and rescue dog handlers who were practicing in the area. we finally made it to glacier lake, which was a total delight. we stopped for lunch. I decided to hike up to the saddle over the snow fields, which I presume are the left overs from the "glacier" after which the lake was named. the hike up the saddle was streneous and tricky, since the snow/ice fields had pockets near the edges. the view at the saddle was worth the short jaunt. after coming back down, I took a dip in the lake, which was really cold !
there is a nother trail back along sandy ridge, but it wasn't obvious and we asked some of the other people we met for directions. their directions were pretty murky too. after some stumbling, we stumbled on the right trail and headed back out, meeting a boys scout troop and a group of trail horse riders complete with mules to carry gear.
my friend went home, and I stayed in the area planning to do some backpacking on the other trails. our day hike took a little longer then expected, so by the time it got dark I wasn't too far into the next hike. I had intended to hike to a place called baltimore site. after spending the night on an overlook to lake spaulding I hiked some more, but when it was clear that there was not enough time to make it out and back before the end of the day, I turned around and hiked back out.
posted by cynicwanderer at 3:09 PM
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