Thomas Lake, Indian Heaven

[drm]

I decided to go and check out how the melt is going in Indian Heaven. The forest service website said that the Thomas Lake trailhead was accessible, but that you would hit snow soon above. But since Thomas Lake and the others right near by are so close to the trailhead, I though I had a good chance of getting to them.

Unfortunately the consistent good weather left for this one day trip. It was 50 at best at the trailhead yesterday, and foggy. There was no snow for the 15 minute hike in th Thomas Lake.

Thomas Lake

Campsites are designated here, and I chose the one between Heather and Dee Lakes, which is right across the trail from Thomas Lake. This is at 4300 feet.

Heather/Dee Lake camp

After waiting for the fog to clear and taking a nap, I hiked further up the trail. I got maybe a mile, to about 4800 feet before the snow was consistently covering the trail before turning back. So these lakes make a nice short backpack, especially when the nice weather returns. But I'm guessing the higher central part of the wilderness, the PCT, Junction Lake, etc, won't be substantially melted out till the second week of August.

[Paul]

Thanks for the update.

Were you able to get to Rock lakes?

[Grannyhiker]

Oh, dear. That means the bugs will be there until mid-September (instead of mid-August) and the huckleberries will ripen in October if they ripen at all!

[Martell]

Don't mosquitoes go away after the first cold night of summer? So wouldn't that still come around the same time?

-trying to be optimistic

[fettster]

drm, with the cool weather were the mosquitoes not an issue then?

[smokey]

Please do share how the bug situation is up there. That's my big deterent- in addition to the snow. Nice to see Thomas snow-free, though!

[drm]

Folks guesses were correct - virtually no mosquitoes. The question is whether a 20 degree warmup would change that quickly. It could be that with the temps in the 40's, they were just hangin' out somewhere. Certainly it won't take long for them to show up.

And not only do they die when the first freeze comes, I think that berry ripening is at least partly triggered by the shorter days, irrespective of when good growing conditions started. So maybe the huckleberries will be ripe at the normal time, but just be smaller because they didn't have as long to grow.

I did not get as far as Rock Lake, though I must have been close.

[Grannyhiker]

I noticed lots of heather (as well as huckleberries) in the meadows near Rock Lake when I was up there a couple of years ago (Labor Day weekend, not a good time to be there because it's so crowded). I suspect the heather and the mosquitoes will bloom about the same time. I also suspect that the show will be worth having to don headnets and lots of bug dope, or maybe steel armor! I won't be around this year, but if anyone is brave enough to go up there with a camera and can get some shots of the heather without too many mosquitoes in the way, I'd love to see them.