Lyons Lake
Lake Sylvia

This was another Monday hike that we did in late fall with the core group. The first part of the trail is a gentle rise to where it splits into the path to Lyons Lake and the one to Lake Sylvia. The .5 increase in rating is for the climb & descent of the last half mile to Lyons Lake.

The trailhead begins just off Wrights Lake Road at the parking lot at Lyons Creek.

Most of the trail is along Lyons Creek, which eventually feeds Ice House Reservoir. It is mostly channeled in granite and there are many spots along the way that would be excellent picnic spots in the summer. We did the hike in late fall and there was still flowing water and many pools.

The trail is through pine forest with plenty of cobbles in patches. Spring runoff would probably make it a pretty soggy trail early in the season.

As the trail nears the split between the lakes, there is a creek crossing that requires careful footing on the loose rocks (although John, at 80+, just about skipped across).

After the trail to Lyons Lake splits off, it starts an upward climb, first through manzanita thickets.

Then up a rocky slope, at times approaching a 45 degree hillside slope.

Once at the lakeside, the brisk (all right - downright cold) wind forced us to hunker down behind one of the many glacial erratics to have lunch.

The sparsely tree lined lake actually has two parts, separated by a small stone dam with a 'path' that goes across the top.

And why does descending a steep slope always seem more treacherous than ascending?

Returning to the trail split, we followed the other fork of the creek to Lake Sylvia which is right below Pyramid Peak. We cross countried along the creek because the GPS indicated that the trail actually headed away from the lake (it did, but hey - who wants to trust technology anyway?).

Returning along the 'official' trail, we ran across the only snow of the whole trip. See, we were right not to follow the trail on the way up.