What a wonderful surprise. I was kinda heading for the Lake Tahoe area. Looking at the map I saw a bunch of little lakes near Graeagle on CA-89. When I got there I saw a sign for Lakes Region Recreational Area and turned up Gold Lake Road. Many small lakes, some large enough to paddle, trails to many of the lakes and other places and several free campgrounds and additional dispersed camping. Looks like a good place to spend some time.
09/19/03 Paddling Gold Lake:
Gold Lake is only a couple of miles long but I had the itch to paddle and it had to be satisfied. Launched the sea kayak into a 10mph wind and turned into it. Gold Lake is the largest of the basin lakes at 2 miles long and 1/2 mile wide. It is surrounded by steep slopes of about 300 feet with bluffs and cliffs at the far end.
I paddled to the far end in 30-40 minutes and then just let the wind blow me back as I relaxed and enjoyed being on the water.
09/20/03 Hiking Mount Elwell Trail (10 miles round trip):
I screwed this one up. I actually started out to do the Smith Lake Trail and follow subsequent trails to Wade Lake. A mile up the trail I came to a fork, one way went to Mohawk, one to Mount Elwell and one was unsigned. Smith Lake should have been right there so I went down the unsigned trail looking for it but nada. So I went up the Mount Elwell Trail. If I found Smith Lake, fine, if not, I had planned on doing Mount Elwell anyway.
This turned out to be a 5 mile trek up 2000 feet. The effort was worth it because of the excellent view of a large lake and several smaller ones. The problem was I should have passed Bear Lake, supposedly the prettiest lake in the basin, on the way and didn't. Apparently there are two trailheads for Mount Elwell, the one I took and another at mile 8 on Gold Lake Road. Oh well, I'll get that one some other time. I do expect to be back here in coming years.