Dale Matson
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[About 9 miles round trip with about 2,000’ of gain overall. The maximum elevation is 9,000’ just before you drop down to the lake. Nellie Lake is north of Huntington Lake and West of Kaiser Peak in the Kaiser Wilderness Area. The access trailhead is out of the Billy Creek Camping area on the northwest side of Huntington Lake.] I recommend a high clearance vehicle to get to the trailhead.
I have hiked to Nellie Lake many times over the years. Here is a posting from mid-July 2017 where there was still lots of snow on the trail. That was a big snow year. https://midsierramusing.blogspot.com/2017/07/day-hike-to-nellie-lake-2017.html. I have also hiked the trail in mid-May with less snow. There was no snow on the trail but there were 20 or so winter deadfalls that had not been cleared by the U. S. Forest Service Crew yet with some snow off trail. The Forest Service had the trail to Twin Lakes cleared when my son and I hiked there the week before.
There were enough folks that had preceded us, that alternate paths around the deadfalls had been created. My hiking friend Sharon and I took about five hours hike time and an additional half hour break at the lake. We had a cool start at 7:30am. This meant leaving Fresno at 6am. The coldest spot on the drive up is the bridge over Tamarack Creek below Tamarack Ridge. It was a chilly 31 degrees registered on my rear-view mirror as we crossed the creek.
Although much of this trail is shaded it can be a hot and dusty hike later in the day. Sharon carried enough water that she did not need to resupply. She had 1.5 liters. I had a single bottle and purification tablets. This early in the season there is water in two locations before the lake and at the lake.
The lake had a gentle breeze and we sat on a log to snack and hydrate. The cares of the world seem so distant at these times.
Sharon admitted to me that the main reason she went with me is that she had just bought the Garmin Fenix 6 pro and wanted help navigating the menus on the watch. I have the same larger version with the Solar feature. I had to leave Suunto behind. Garmin is now, way beyond Suunto with features.
Well, Sharon followed me until we were about a mile to the truck and then the barn door effect took over. She passed me and it was all I could do to keep up.
This time I kept things light and simple with an older model Sony RX100 point and shoot camera for the photographs and video.
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