Читать книгу Trinity Alps & Vicinity: Including Whiskeytown, Russian Wilderness, and Castle Crags Areas. A Hiking and Backpacking Guide онлайн

121 страница из 134

The trail to Sapphire Lake contours around the north shore of Emerald Lake, turning southwest through brush and across a talus slope about 100 feet above the surface. As you approach the connecting stream between the two lakes, the trail turns west to snake up over steep granite shelves on the way to the lake.

Sapphire Lake is twice the size of Emerald Lake and, with a reported depth of more than 200 feet, is the deepest lake in the Trinity Alps. The lake is spectacularly beautiful—a jewel, as the name implies. From the dike at the east end of the lake, three sides of a giant granite cirque with remnant snowfields spread before your eyes. Almost directly west, a higher shelf hides Mirror Lake, hanging under the sheer upper ramparts of the canyon. Thick brush and scrub willows cover some of the lower slopes around the lake. Conifers are quite scarce, with only a few stunted weeping spruces, mountain hemlocks, red firs, and whitebark pines surviving in cracks and pockets in the granite. Fishing is no better in Sapphire Lake than in Emerald Lake, and only the hardiest swimmers will find the water warm enough for a brief, refreshing dip. A few very poor campsites have been scraped out in the rocks near the outlet, but firewood is nonexistent and there’s no place to adequately hang a bag of food.