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The best part of this hike may be that the access road is in great
shape, much better than all the other dirt roads we'd been on.
When we arrived at the trailhead, we found a little dirt parking lot
with space for 3 or 4 cars, and no one else there. We
would not see another person on this entire hike.
The trail starts climbing almost immediately, heading west and then veering
north, then shortly crossing the road which we could have driven on.
That would have saved us a few minutes of walking. Only about 15 minutes
after starting the hike, we reached Lake Eleanor. This is a pretty little lake
with some lily pads on the edges. We followed the trail around the lake,
then past a small meadow.
Lake Eleanor
Lake Eleanor
The trail starts to climb steeply now, on some overgrown trail. It crosses
the road a few times; at some points the road is the trail. At one point
at one of these crossings we saw a battery set next to a rock, perhaps as a
reminder to pay attention since it would be easy to lose the trail here. We
remembered that on the way back (if we didn't turn right coming back, we'd stay on the road and
miss the trail).
Can you see the frog?
Can you still see the frog?
There's the frog
We were several times in danger of losing the trail, but kept our eyes open,
looking for rock stacks to lead the way. After slogging through for a while,
we decided we wouldn't be able to reach the lake for lunch, so we stopped
among some big rocks and trees to eat.
Trinity Lake
Flowers
After our break, we resumed the climb. At one point the views opened up a
bit and we could see Mt. Shasta and Lassen, though views were not common on this
hike. We passed a small pond, then continued the steady climb up. After
crossing a nice meadow, and Lick Creek, we finally came to Shimmy Lake, and it was
small. The kids were disappointed it was smaller than Lake Eleanor. When you can
fairly easily throw a rock across to the other shore, you know it's not a big lake.
Meadow
Meadow
Log crossing
Shimmy Lake
On the positive side, it had some nice rocks and shade and was perfect for skipping
rocks. But in general it was a disappointment.
It took us a little under an hour to descend back to our lunch spot, then we proceeded to
have problems staying on the trail. Again, we kept our eyes peeled for the rock
stacks and eventually gained our bearings. The GPS definitely helped, as well.
From our lunch spot, it was about an hour back to our car. Along the way we remembered
the battery and kept to the right there. We took a short break at Lake Eleanor, then
returned to the trailhead.
Lake Eleanor
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