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The biggest attraction was the view from a special campsite high above Top Lake where the westward view across the Central Valley is the best I've ever seen (from a lake instead of a summit) including amazing nighttime views of city lights. Wildfire smoke greatly diminished this view, but it was still a quality trip. The hike in was hot and windless, but the wildflowers were very nice, especially the lilies. 0360Lillies.jpg
Our first camp at Lawrence Lake suffered from some mosquito harassment 0363DawnJudyLawrenceCamp.jpg
but the second day was more or less a layover day as we made a short off trail move up to the magic campsite above Top Lake where it was cooler, breezier, and nearly bug free. 0558LawrenceEnRoutetoTop.jpg
The pace of the trip allowed for lots of relaxation around Top Lake. 0369JudyDawnTopshore.jpg
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What was really surprising was how few folks we saw and how quiet it was. We saw two groups hiking out (two guys and then one family group) fairly close to the trailhead and did not see anyone until our third day (Saturday) when we ran into a number of folks headed for Lake No. 3 (closest of the lakes in this area to the Van Vleck trailhead). Barrett Lake (near Lawrence L) is reached by a jeep trail and in previous visits to this area (1998 and 2005) I remember hearing the sound of the vehicles, clanking of doors and other things. On the second day before hiking up to Top Lake we visited Barrett Lake and found no one there. Moreover, unlike other places we'd visited that are reached by jeep trail, there was zero litter or refuse around. It was really amazing to find west Desolation and environs so empty. It actually felt like...wilderness. Whereas our nightime view of city lights only ran from about Stockton to Sacramento to (not sure what the city/town N of Sac we saw was), far short of the much wider ranging nightview I saw in 2005, the upper sky was clear and the comet was clearly visible. Fishing? Near total skunkage as predicted. Dawn and Judy continued their 0 for 2020 (Dawn would undo that in a few days). I caught four big brookies. chunkybrookiesCR.jpg
One was consumed as part of one of our multi course camp meals, three were taken home for Lee to cook up on Saturday night for a huge back-in-town feast. All in all, it was a fun trip and the first time Judy had been on two backpacking trips since before we had kids (2001 was the year). Dawn and I would have two days rest before the "main event" and the hike was rigorous enough to provide a good warm up