Mt. Lola: a great hike on Father's Day weekend
17 Jun 2000 - by Tony Cruz
The five of us, Aaron Schuman (fearless leader), Pat Ibbetson
(fearless co-leader), Cynthia Schuman, Chris Macintosh, my
11-year old daughter Candice and your faithful scribe met at
Andy's, a Pullman Car restaurant in Truckee. A few of us had
a heavy breakfast and some only coffee. We then drove a
half-hour or so north on Highway 89.
After taking a paved side road west for a few miles, our
leaders consulted a road map and Patrick's guidebook and we
turned onto an unpaved road. Patrick managed to find a
reasonable way to get within a mile and a half of the peak.
He and I ferried the other climbers, who left their
low-clearance vehicles behind. We parked next to a stream
flowing through a lovely meadow and began the hike at about
10:30 a.m. I managed to bump the bottom of my van on a
rock, cracking my transmission fluid pan, which I had to
replace upon my return to the Bay Area.
Later in the summer when the snow melts, a fine trail will appear
leading all the way to the top of Lola (9,100 feet). But on our
hike the trail soon disappeared under snow and our leaders
guided us through the forest up to the south ridge of the peak.
We stopped for a snack at an obvious clearing a few hundred
meters below the summit. It offered shade, dry ground,
fallen logs for sitting, and great views of the still-snowy
peaks surrounding us and two reservoirs to the south.
Aaron helped Candice up some steep snow and around noon she
made it to the top-- her first SPS summit. Chris was
feeling energetic and wanted to do "North Lola" but decided
against it. After about 25 minutes we started our leisurely
hike back and returned to the vehicles about 4 hours after
we started walking. Mid-June turned out to be a great time
to do this easy peak. We enjoyed great weather and it was
fun to hike on firm snow. After our return to the vehicles,
the members of the group went their separate ways to
celebrate the rest of Father's Day weekend.
My thanks to Aaron and the rest of the group for making
Candice's first Sierra peak such an enjoyable and memorable
experience. Thanks to Pat for taking on this trip as a PCS
leadership check-out.
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