There have been a ton of great Trinity Alps trip reports lately, so I'll keep this quick. The short story is that the flowers are out, snow's all melted, and the streams are drying up quickly.
We started Friday from the very easy to get to Long Canyon Trailhead, just a couple paved miles off CA3. Note that you need to pick your (unlimited, free) permits up at a Ranger Station before getting to the trailhead. We went to the station at Coffee Creek, which is on the way if you're headed south, and has a kiosk for afterhours use.
The first few miles up Long Canyon are forested, but the flowers were going crazy. Seems like everything's bigger in California.
After a while, the trail breaks into some long meadows beneath Bee Tree Gap. More flower madness ensued.
As we climbed up the meadow, things opened up more and more, and it got hotter and hotter. I don't know if it's getting older or what, but I was definitely feeling the heat.
The hippies on a stick still had short hair.
After more sweating and "photo breaks" than I'd like to admit, we made it to Bee Tree Gap. From there, it was just a short walk above Siligo Meadows to Deer Creek Pass and the beginning of possible campsites.
Yellow lupine! I'd never seen this before.
Siligo Meadows look almost manicured.
The view of Deer Lake from Deer Creek Pass is phenomenal.
We decided to keep going a little further, to camp at Summit Lake, where we'd heard there were a few good spaces. I'm so glad we did! To get to Summit Lake, you have to take a short side trail, and we had the place essentially to ourselves all weekend.
We cooked dinner, took a short swim, and turned in relatively early. The next morning, we set out in the (very!) bright sun to do the Four Lakes Loop. My wife, KRock, was ready.
Me: not so much. For whatever reason, the sun was stronger up there than I've dealt with in a long time. I was pretty good about applying sunscreen, but got burned pretty badly - much worse than when I applied about the same amount of sunscreen climbing St. Helens this spring. If you go, I'd strongly recommend a sun shirt or something.
The Four Lakes Loop gains and loses a little more than 2000 feet over five or so miles. We did it counterclockwise, which meant we lost most of our elevation all at once, as we hiked from the pass between Summit and Deer Lakes down into the Deer Creek Drainage. Here's the view from the drainage, near Round Lake. I bet there were waterfalls a few weeks ago.
And from the trail out of the drainage, up toward Luella Lake.
Yellow lupine again (this time with a friend!).
From the ridge above Luella Lake, there's an excellent view of the red and white Trinities bumping into each other.
The lake's a lot bigger than it might seem from that picture. For scale, in this one there are a few people in the upper left.
The trail meanders a little on the way from Luella to Diamond Lake, passing through a short wooded area and a gorgeous meadow. There were a ton of butterflies.
And ants! I can't figure out why they were so attracted to this one plant. KRock thinks recreational drug use?
Soggy meadow below Diamond Lake.
And Diamond Lake itself.
From there, I took a quick jaunt up Siligo Peak while KRock returned to camp for a swim. There's a well-worn use trail leading to the top, which affords great views of Summit Lake, Shasta, and quite a lot else.
Shasta's hat was the only cloud in the sky.
Red and white trinities: Deer Creek Pass in the foreground, Bee Tree Gap behind.
After sitting at the summit for a while, I trundled down to our lake, and followed suit with a swim. "Hello!"
Sunday morning we got up early (for us...) to try to beat the heat on the way out. It didn't exactly work, but there morning views were still really nice. Saying goodbye to Deer Lake.
