This was one of those hikes that showed me I am not as fit as I thought.
The Thompson Lake hike is about 12 miles out and back, which is a nice long way but nothing outrageous. The first 5 miles of the trail go from 890 feet in the parking lot to just over 4,000 feet. So that’s 3,100 feet of elevation gain, nothing to sneeze at but hardly a killer.
The challenge of this hike comes in the last mile. From the point where the Thompson Lake Trail intersects the Thompson Point Trail to Thompson Lake is about a mile. During that mile you go steeply down about 200 feet in a hurry then steeply up 400 feet in another hurry, and the last section, between .4 and .5 miles goes down yet another 600 feet.
And that’s 600 feet back up on the way back, then down again, and then 200 feet up before you get back to a less drastic grade. I was sucking wind.
However, the lake itself is fabulous to visit:
Looking up at various points on this trail show how high local peaks like Dirty Harry’s, Dirtybox and Mailbox Peak really are:
The flowers are still out and being impressive, for example:
To this non-botanist it seems like different flowers like different altitudes. And not just the flowers – the various bushes and weeds and trees change the higher you go. Aside from being assaulted by the steepness of the last mile of trail, this hike was just a wonderful meander to a peaceful sub-alpine (about 3,600 foot) lake.
A picture of the track:
All in all an exceedingly worthwhile workout.