Leavitt Meadows hike, Hoover Wilderness
Poore Lake
Who drives 3 hours to get close to the mountains, and then the very next day spends another hour to completely cross them and hike on the other side of the mountain range?
Well, us, of course. In-between the commercial Lake Tahoe and national freeway called Yosemite there lies is a paradise for locals. We went on the Leavitt Meadows hike in the Hoover Wilderness there.
You won't see the world-famous waterfalls there, but you will see mountain lakes:
Roosevelt Lake
and mountain ranges:
What we were most impressed with on this hike were the trees. We estimated the count of the rings on the fallen tree to be around 500, and that slump was definitely not the largest tree around...
Hoover wilderness is located near the area where bristlecone pines - the oldest living organisms - can be found. I suspect this tree is nearing 1000 years of age...
Another fun part of the trail was that we have discovered crawfish in the lakes! We were eating lunch by the lake, enjoying the coolness of the water with our feet, when we were literally attacked by those lake creatures! We spent the better half of the next hour playing with the crawfish. Most of them would immediately jump away as soon as they observed any movement, but one particular crawfish kept coming back to us. I don't know whether he was an adrenaline junkie or just the hungriest and thus most desperate of them all, but we got to spend a lot of time with him:
Click to view-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A couple of pro-tips for those who want to brave this hike themselves:
- the side-hike to Poore Lake is really not worth it unless you want to descend a considerable distance to the lake shore, there really isn't a good view point. Instead, you can get a great view of that same lake from the crest part of the trail
- if you are starting late in the day consider leaving the crest part of the trail for the second half as it remains in the sun longer than the valley. Alternatively, if you'd really like to capture the view of the valley, hit the crest first while the sun is shining on it.
- Poore Lake side trail has a side trail to the Secret Lake -- that allows you to avoid climbing up and down on the way to the ridge