Thursday, October 3, 2013

Lake Sabrina Hike

 

We didn’t realize that the drought and a Southern California Edison project that required the lake to be drained has left Lake Sabrina west of Bishop with very little water. It was quite a surprise when we got out of the car and were walking to the trail.

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I found this photo of what it looks like with water. There’s no boating going on this year.

Lake-Building from Mtn

All that is left are two small natural lakes that existed before the dam was built in the early 1900s.

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But we wanted to take a short hike, and the Lake Sabrina Inlet trail sounded good. 1.2 miles along the bank of the lake with little change in elevation.

The rocks in the middle form an island when the lake is full.

Lake Sabrina Trail

The scenery was nice but the trail soon turned to nothing but rocks.

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You can barely make out Debbie coming up the so called trail.

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She said she hoped we didn’t have to go back the same way, so Jim decided we could just circle the lake. There wasn’t much of a trail but we managed to get all the way around and up the other side to the real trail.

I kept asking Jim if he thought we could make it, and he assured us we could.

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It was Debbie’s birthday and I had picked this short, easy hike just for her. As it turned out we went about 3.5 miles, and the majority of it wasn’t very easy. We did see some of the best fall colors yet, though, so it was worth it.

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We then planned to take Debbie to lunch at Thai Thai, strangely located at the very small Bishop airport, but when we got there we discovered it is closed on Monday. Nothing seemed to be working out right, but we ended up eating pizza at Upper Crust, which was actually quite good.

Since we were in town we stopped at the Mountain Light Gallery. If you’re ever in Bishop don’t miss this place. Most of the photography was done by Galen Rowell and it is incredible. I’ve now decided we must visit Patagonia one day…

7 comments:

  1. Even though it is a few days late, extend a happy birthday wish to Debbie.

    So sad at the number of lakes that are dry across the country.

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  2. I had forgotten about Lake Sabrina being drained. Sue, from the Mohos and other Traveling Tails, visited there in May and wrote about it. Glad there was at least a puddle for you to see lol. At least the drive up there is beautiful and the fall colors around Aspendell are always gorgeous. The Mountain Light Gallery is a treat to the eyes. A belated Happy Birthday to Debbie.

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  3. We stopped at the same place coming down the hill, but we had to work around lots of other people with the same idea. Tell Debbie Happy Birthday and the place we liked in Henderson was Double Eagle RV & engine repairs, 6121 Boulder Hwy, 702-666-8415.

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  4. Some lovely photos. I used to rent a boat and fish on that lake about 20 or so years ago.

    Metamorphosis Lisa

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  5. Happy Birthday Debbie. Beautiful fall color!

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  6. Happy Birthday Debbie. Beautiful fall color pics!

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  7. What a surprise to find the lake in this condition! What water was left is still pretty.

    It is amazing how each hike is an adventure even with research. You're just never sure exactly what you will run into. Sounded like a great workout with unbelievable fall colors.

    With stark whiteness of the rock, the fall colors are really amazing. Almost looks like they were painted in to the background. We are just beginning to see a few touches of color. We had several very cool nights which helped but now it is summer like which will slow things again.

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