Gathering visual information

Michael and I hiked to the upper Monarch Lake. It is about 5.5 miles – the first mile and a quarter is steep and hot and dusty with giant steps up that just suck the juice right out of your legs. img_1321.jpg The Bigelow Sneezeweed are at their peak in August, as are the Gentian. img_1324.jpgThe next 4 miles are on a beautifully graded trail with a flat trailbed; the trail actually has a few too many (unnecessary) switchbacks. It takes you well above Timber Gap, and it was a bit smoky from the California wildfires.img_1325.jpgThe last 3/4 mile is Find-Your-Own-Way.img_1343.jpgUpper Monarch Lake is one of the four lakes out of Mineral King with a dam on it. It was constructed in 1905, well before the well-graded trail was ever built (but you can bet it was thought of with great longing by those hard-working men!) The peak is Mineral Peak; it is the one some guy kept trying to convince me was Homer’s Nose while I was painting the mural.img_1380.jpgWe went up one way from lower Monarch to upper Monarch; it wasn’t very easy. We came down a different way that included quite a bit of meandering and backtracking; it was much easier and rather interesting.img_1378.jpgSee what we found? We left it there. Pity the guy who had to hike down on a non-trail missing a sole!

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