3 or 4 years ago, we tried this hike with a friend of ours. Unfortunately, due to the massive amount of snow that year, we were only able to make it to Grizzly meadows. This time we were determined to make it all the way to Thompson Peak (9002 ft.) Apparently they had a big fire last year that destroyed a lot of trees...
Knocking them over and creating obsticles along the way.
No, it is not a Grizzly, just a California black bear. It is in the middle of the picture-click on it to see it better. Dang it, we need a zoom!
This was the meadows we camped in.
This is the 100 ft. waterfall coming out of Grizzly lake which sits at 7000 ft.
Sammy playing in the snow-He loved it!
Sammy wiping out in the snow...
Looking down on Grizzly lake. We had to hike to the north side around the falls to get up to the lake. A lot of boulder scrambling and picking Sammy up along the way, but we made it. Thompson Peak is over in the top left corner.
Once there, we hung out on the ledge to watch the waterfall do its first drop down 100 ft, then another 650 ft. down to the meadows.
Yeah, that is the waterfall under our feet. You have to step across some rocks to get to the other side and climb Thompson. It is not for the faint of heart!
Climbing the south ridge up to Thompson. From the lake (stepping over waterfalls) to the peak of Thompson is around 2000 ft. elevation in 2.47 miles. It was almost all in snow for us and several times up to our waist as we had to go almost vertical in the snow to get over the ridge. It doesn't look bad from below, but when you look down at it, the steepest part was about a 75 degree angle for 40 feet and we really had to suck it up and climb down. To add to our misery, Sammy refused to climb down, so we had to carry him.
Standing on top. Thompson is the highest peak in the Trinity Alps. The Trinity's are truly the best kept secret in California. The lakes you see are the Canyon Creek lakes. You get to them by hiking the Canyon creek trail up that valley for about 8.5 miles. This is one of our favorite hikes in the Trinity's, especially during the fall when the colors are changing, however, we did it during Easter 3 years ago and we had to hike and camp in the snow, quite an experience.
That is Grizzly lake in the middle of the picture.
Thomas Moser's friend climbed to the top of Thompson and made a memorial plaque to him up there. What a cool tribute!
Our tracks coming down the ridge.
We had a number of things go wrong on this trip. First we forgot our trail map-not such a big deal. Then we forgot to bring along extra batteries for our Steripen-again, not a big deal, the water is ice cold snow run off with very little chance of contamination-in fact it was some of the best water we have ever drunk-glacial water! Then, we forgot our rope to tie up our food in the trees, fortunately, we were able to get all the scented food into our bear canister-which amazingly the bear left alone, although he did move it all around. Lastly, our stove broke down on us and after messing around with it for an hour, we made a very small fire and boiled our water to make our dinner. Sammy stood on guard as we ate.
Hiking out. Becky's best buds. Total hike was 3 days 2 nights. We hiked 18.5 miles. The hardest thing about this hike is the climbing. You start out climbing high really fast, then you descend almost the same distance, then you climb back up to the meadows, then keep climbing to the lake and peak. The trailhead is around 4300 ft. It was a blast and we had a great trip.
