I drove up to Brighton (about 20 miles away) for what i thought would be an easy walk around Silver Lake. After driving past 20 miles of cars parked along the side of a windy, narrow, canyon road, I finally arrived at the Silver Lake visitor/information center. The walk around the lake looked a little too easy, so I thought, "what the heck, why not go for a nice leisurely hike?" So I asked the guy at the visitor center about hiking to Lake Mary.
"Its about a mile, it takes me about thirty minutes," he said.
I eyed the guy up and figured I was in at least as good of shape as he was. Then he chimed in, "There's still a lot of snow on the ground up there."
"Oh, I guess I'm not dressed for that," I replied, trying to point out my hiking sandals, T-Shirt, and shorts."It's warm," he said. "There's just melting snow on the ground. You'll be fine. The trail head is just up by the Brighton Center. It takes off from between the lifts."
"Alright," I replied and was out the door.
So, the hike to Lake Mary was probably only about a mile, like the guy had said, but it was not an easy mile. Between the melting snow (which makes mud, by the way), the steep incline, and the elevation (trail-head at over 9,000 feet and the lake itself sitting just about 11,000) I was utterly exhausted when i finally arrived an hour and a half later. But I was rewarded for my efforts.
The view was absolutely stunning. Despite the numerous other people that were at the lake, it
was still secluded enough to be peaceful and relaxing - even though I never once lost cell reception. I guess that is one of the "benefits" of hiking above a ski resort. Anyway, I hiked about half way around the lake until I found the incoming snow-melt stream and hiked up and away from the lake about 25 yards. I found a very nice secluded little grove with a small waterfall of snow-melt, which I used to cool my warm water bottles. I sat for about an hour just enjoying the afternoon before heading back down the hill. If every hike is as rewarding as this one, I'm going to have a hard time enjoying California hiking again...
