Leakage from a Cluttered Mind

Leaving Mammoth as early as we could, we hit the trailhead at Saddlebag Lake around 10 am. We made a loop hike through the Twenty Lakes Basin in a clockwise direction, logging around 8 miles. There is a water taxi on Saddlebag lake that would shorten the hike, and certainly the shoreline of Saddlebag isn’t that appealing, in my opinion. There were a few lakes we did not visit, so maybe a return trip is in order.

Links
—20 Lakes Basin 2009 photo gallery
—Everytrail GPS track for 20 Lakes Basin hike

Our plan for the day was to get up early, drive over Tioga Pass to Saddlebag Lake, and be on the trail to Twenty Lakes Basin by 10:30 am. A strange weather system derailed our plans. It was sprinkling in Livermore when we left. Tioga Pass was overcast, cool, and windy (gusts over 30 mph). What little precipitation there was floated down like snow. With conditions like that, we decided to do the hike on our way back in a couple of days.

We stopped for an early lunch at Whoa Nellie’s (Fish Tacos, of course) and then drove south on 395 to Tom’s Place. We headed to the trail head at the end of the road on Rock Creek, and hiked a couple of miles up the trail, past a few of the lakes in Little Lakes Basin. The weather still wasn’t the greatest, but we were comfortable enough hiking. It’s a beautiful area, and we determined to come back tomorrow for a much longer walk.