Graveyard Lakes

This was backpacking weekend to Graveyard lakes north of Edison Lake. One third the effort was driving the paved road (used loosely) to Edison Lake. The section from Kaiser Pass to Edison gets progressively more potholed as you get closer to Edison. I guess it keeps out the riff raff.

From Edison we followed the Goodale Pass trail up to Lower and Upper Graveyard Meadows. This section steeply climbs up from the lake through some well established Lodepole Pine Forests. Lower Graveyard Meadow is approximately a mile long and a great place to pass a few hours. Our mission, however was to make it to Lower Graveyard Lake so we pressed on. The hike is about 7 miles and 2100 feet of elevation gain. The last 500 feet from Upper Graveyard Lake is the steepest but is over in short order. Once at the lake we were happy to see there was no one else there. Our Dogs Kodi and Shiva had a great time in the lake.

The fishing was good too, but I don't think you could make a meal out of the 3-8 inch trout. Mosquito flies worked best since there were a few around. I saw a deer come to the water to drink while I was fishing. This lake must not get a lot of traffic since he was not quite sure what to make of me. He watched me for half an hour while I was fishing and did not run as I made my way back to camp. I saw a potential route on he east face of Graveyard Peak, but it could be loose and alpine like. On the way out I noticed some other cliffs up Mono Creek (east of Edison Lake).

Tour De Granite

This past couple weeks have been awesome for mountain biking in the Shaver area. Last Saturday was the Annual Tour De Granite Race sponsored by Spatdog. They did a great job organizing the event. The granite climb is about half way through the lap. Some riders can actually ride this section.

As a follow up we rode with the Central California Offroad cyclists on a 22 mile ride around Shaver Lake. We rode clockwise and found some cool single track sections and lots of dirt roads. The highlight has to be the Lakeshore Trail section which is mostly rideable by us. There are certainly a lot of opportunities to add mileage and link up singletrack sections, but we were glad to call it a day.