Weather forecast was slightly dismal today, supposed to rain so George del Campo and I both had our hiking-in-the-rain gear with us. But it was gorgeously sunny the whole way. We lucked out today.
This is a nice hike, not extreme but solidly in the medium-tough category. It is fairly flat for the first 1.6 miles on the Ira Springs Memorial Trail but then it gets steep for 1.3 miles. You go up to about 4,300 feet fairly quickly.
Just past where this photo was taken the trail goes down to Mason Lake.
This is where Derek and I are going to go with the inflatable kayak. How much fun would it be to kayak around this beautiful alpine lake?
I love the wonderful southern and western views during breaks through the trees and then when you get up above most of the trees:
We took our time hiking up but got back down in 90 minutes. 4 hours 40 minutes, just over 2,300 feet of elevation gain, 7 miles round trip.
George and Barb are heading back south in a couple of weeks so maybe we can do some more hiking next year. George is 75 and wouldn’t we like to be so fit when we get there?
Visualization of the hike:
http://adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/djhiker/mason-lake-with-george-10-23-2016/#.WA08O02V8bx