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| Hiking | 14.02 Miles |
4,270 AEG |
| | Hiking | 14.02 Miles | 6 Hrs 19 Mns | | 2.50 mph |
| 4,270 ft AEG | 43 Mns Break | | | |
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| no linked trail guides |
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| no partners | | I chose Meysan Lake for a pre-Whitney warmup and parked along the road near Whitney Portal Campground, starting out ~6AM. The route meanders through the campground and summer cabins, then starts a steady climb as the trail follows the north side of the canyon along Meysan Creek. The sound of flowing water down in the canyon was almost constant, and I went off the trail a short distance ~ two miles in to get a better look at some of the waterfalls.
[ youtube video ]
Higher up, the trees started to thin out as I approached the Grass Lake/Meysan Lake intersection. The trail leveled off for a while around Camp Lake and then became virtually non-existent other than a few small cairns above the lake on the final rocky climb up toward Meysan, so it was a matter of taking the path of least resistance and following the general direction of the GPS track the rest of the way.
I'd had complete solitude on the hike thus far and hadn't seen anyone since the campground, but there was one hiker along the shoreline below, and he immediately started stripping and proceeded to go skinny dipping, apparently undeterred by my arrival...great. What possesses a solo hiker to shed all their clothes at a lake, or a summit, or anywhere else, remains a mystery to me  .
I made my way down to the shore and kept a few hundred yards of distance between myself and Mr. Dipper while I took a break and enjoyed the relative solitude. Great scenery and very peaceful up there--the lake was surrounded by white cliffs and snow patches, and the only sounds were water flowing into Meysan Creek and fish occasionally rippling the surface of the water.
[ youtube video ]
I eventually worked my way around the rocky east side of the lake over to the south side, and Mr. Dipper was re-clothed and exiting the area by that point, so I had the area to myself for a while. On the way back around, I followed Meysan Creek a short distance where it flows down toward Camp Lake, then filtered some water to refill my bottles and started the hike out. On the way back, I checked out Grass Lake, and I saw a handful of hikers/backpackers before I got back to the trailhead around noon.
I still had plenty of time to explore but didn't want to push it mileage-wise with an early start planned for Whitney on Saturday. Before driving back to Lone Pine, I headed over to the Whitney Trailhead to get a look at it in the daylight. It was packed, as expected, and all the overflow lots were full, so I had to park down the road. All the more impressive how blissfully overlooked Meysan Lake seems to be--it was nice to have such a quiet hike near a popular area, and it provided a fun and beautiful warmup for Saturday. |
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Camp Lake |
26-50% full |
26-50% full |
| | | Water level looked relatively low; swampy around the edges |
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Grass Lake |
26-50% full |
26-50% full |
| | | Swampy around the edges, but plenty of water in the lake |
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Meysan Creek |
Light flow |
Light flow |
| | | Consistent flow from Meysan Lake down through the canyon |
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Meysan Lake |
51-75% full |
51-75% full |
| | | Healthy water level in the lake and steady flow into Meysan Creek and down the canyon | | | |
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