Tamarack Lake
Ralston Lake
Cagwin Lake
Echo Lakes

This was another "Monday Hikers" group outing. The destination was a couple of smaller lakes beyond Echo Lakes. Although the total distance was 9.4 miles, the last 2.2 miles were spent sitting in the water taxi crossing both Upper and Lower Echo Lakes.

The trailhead begins across the spillway at marina at the end of Echo Summit Road. Parking on the weekend can be quite challenging.

The route rates a '3' mainly because of poor footing along large sections of the trail (rolling granite scree), not because of elevation changes.

This was the group on that Monday along side the trail above Echo Lakes. This section is part of the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, which stretches from Mexico to Canada, and the 165 mile long Tahoe Rim Trail that circles the lake.

We stopped for lunch at the lakeside. It is quite nice and a couple of people were swimming on the far side.

The trail to Ralston Lake was pretty well defined and not very difficult. There were a couple of branches to camp sites that were a bit misleading.

The lake itself is a large depression in granite mountains surrounding it. Ralston Peak, at 9,235' looms over 1,400' above the lake.

The loop to Cagwin Lake, however, is virtually no-existent. After casting about and running into severe drop-offs, we ended up backtracking

Although small and fairly shallow, Cagwin Lake is nice and pretty remote. I guess not many spend the time to find it.

Heading back to Tamarack, we took a slightly different path that involved a bit of loose broken rock. Couldn't find the trail, remember?.

By the time we got back to the west end of Upper Echo Lake, everyone opted for the water taxi.