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SkyHighLakes,MarbleWilderness17-19July2016

LoversCampTHtoSkyHighLakes(6miles)

LoversCampTHtoSkyHighLakes&ShadowLakeGPSProfile

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LoversCampTHtoSkyHighLakes&ShadowLakeTopoMapwithGPSTracks

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Carol,Elisabeth&TysenatLoversCampTrailhead

Elisabeth, Carol and Tysen drove nearly two hours, July 17, 2016, from Ashland to the Lovers Camp trailhead in the Marble Wilderness, via Yreka, Fort Jones and Scotty Campground. That Sunday, we found the parking lot overflowing with cars and had to park outside of it. Shortly after getting on the trail, we found extensive horse droppings from a horse train somewhere ahead of us. After a while, we also started to see backpackers and hikers returning as we continued our ascent. Tysen was still concerned that we would have a hard time finding a suitable campsite near lower Sky High Lake.

We crossed over four streams without difficulty, as we climbed more than 1500 ft. in elevation over a total distance of six miles. As we started to leave the tree shaded trail during the last couple of miles we saw glimpses of Marble Mountain, for which this wilderness is named, as well as its neighboring peak, Black Mountain. As we passed Gate Lake, we reached Sky High Valley. This valley has a profusion of chest-high vegetation and flowers in addition to stands of Aspen in the meadows.

Finally, after nearly five hours of hiking, we reached the south end of Lower Sky High Lake. And we saw no one else there! With a choice of a handful of campsites, we selected a site above the lake in a small stand of pine trees with a small stand of Aspen next to it. It afforded us a partial view of Marble Mountain to the north.

We found out that this campsite was a natural aviary due to its abundance of birds. One mysterious large bird, however, did not reveal its identity until several days later. We would hear low repeated hooting sounds as if from an owl and occasional flapping from a bird with large wings. To the considerable excitement of Carol, it turned out to be a Sooty Grouse that lived there!

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Sooty Grouse [Google]

While the day time temperatures at this altitude were in the high seventies, the night time temperatures were probably in high forties. It was good to have a winter sleeping bag as well as extra layers of clothes.

The next day, we made a day hike past Lower and Upper Sky High Lakes as well as Frying Pan Lakes. Our destination was Shadow Lake. This lake is nestled on a ledge above Lower Sky High Lake. To reach it, we had to get up onto the Pacific Crest Trail. We were rewarded with an abundance of wild flowers, as well as grander vistas of Marble and Black Mountain. In addition, we were also able to see snowy peaks to the south – probably in the Trinity Alps – as we headed south on the Pacific Crest Trail. We also encountered two Pacific Crest Trail through hikers – who were hiking the full 2600 miles of this trail.

After a steep descend, which included a patch of snow, we reached the north end of Shadow Lake and had lunch there. Instead of backtracking, we ended up taking a steep trail from the south end of the lake back up to the Pacific Crest Trail.

The third day, we packed up and returned back to the trailhead in about four hours. While we had seen various clouds build up in the distance over these three days, we encountered no rain.

Since we did not get back to the Fort Jones Junction till about 2:30 pm and had not eaten lunch, we explored this small town from one end to the other for a place to eat. Of the establishments that we were open, we ended up having a great lunch in a small place right next to Ray’s Market (opposite the Ft Jones Ranger Station). One of our original destinations was the Creamery at the north end of town. We learned that it was now a carpet store and had not been a creamery since 1986.

We made it back to Ashland around 5 pm with lots of good memories, several hundred pictures and sore muscles.

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Carol&Elisabethatoneoffourcreekcrossings

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LotsofWildFlowersalongthetrailaswelefttheWoods

FirstGlimpseofMarble(left)andBlack(right)Mountains

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ApproachingGateLake

Hip&Shoulder-highVegetationalongTrail

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PassingthroughSkyHighValleytowardLowerSkyHighLake

CampsiteabovesouthendofLowerSkyHighLake

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ViewfromCampsitetowardMarbleMountain

SouthendofLowerSkyHighLake

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Elisabeth&CarolstartingDayHikenexttoLowerSkyHighLake(lookingsouth)

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PassingUpperSkyHighLake

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FryingPanLakelookingeast

SkyHighLakesVista(FryingPan(l),LowerSkyHighLakes(m)&UpperSkyHighLake(r))

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Carol,Elisabeth&TysennearPacificCrestTrailwithMarble&BlackMountains

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PacificCrestTrailheadingsouth

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DescendingtoShadowLake

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ShadowLake(lookingsouth)

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LunchBreak

ViewofMarble&BlackMountain

Marble&BlackMountainswithLower(r)&UpperSkyHighLakes(l)

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AscendfromShadowLake

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FlowersalongthePCT

ReturningbacktotheSkyHighLakes

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ApproachingFryingPanLake

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ReturnbacktoTrailheadthroughSkyHighValley

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WaterBreaknexttostreamcrossing