Goal for the day: Noble Lake

While I didn’t have a direct view of the sunrise, the light from it put on quite a show this morning.

The clouds worried me enough to get a weather report through my Inreach. Possible rain in the afternoon. First sign of bad weather for this trek. Nothing I could do about it, so I packed up and headed north on the trail.

The first part was mostly downhill, but where there is a down in the Sierra Nevadas there is always an up.

I reached Asa Lake in early afternoon and took a look around. It was a nice lake surrounded by forest. Then I felt the first sprinkles of rain.

Then I met my first and only people of the day. Two day hikers from a nearby trailhead.

With the possible rain and maybe due to fatigue, I decided to stop early and camp at Asa Lake instead of continuing to Noble Lake. The somewhat big climb to the pass above Noble Lake played part into that decision, but it’s still disappointing to stop short of the goal.

And after stopping short, the rain wasn’t that bad that afternoon. A few short scattered light rain showers. It was a nice place to camp, but my attempts to swim in the lake to clean up and cool off was thwarted by murky water.

While the barbed wire fence before the lake trail junction was down, the cattle in the area didn’t come into the area around the lake.

Goal failed. 🙁

6.5 miles (5.5 miles on PCT)
6 hours on the trail

24 total miles hiked on this section of the PCT
51 miles to go until Echo Lake