The Tayee lakes

     “I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” -John Muir

Every year my dad and I do a weekend backpacking trip.  A few years ago we hiked 50 miles across Catalina Island in thirty hours.  It was a lot of fun.  Well this year my dad and I hiked through the Tayee Lakes.

There are four lakes that make up the Tayee Lakes.  Our goal was to reach the fourth lake, set up camp, and fish to our hearts desire.   The fourth lake rests at 11,000 feet.  The hike itself starts at 9,000 feet and 4 miles away from the fourth lake.  It was a tough hike, but a lot of fun.  

We ran into a little snow trouble in between Lake 3 and Lake 4.  Here is a Vid of my dad following the snow covered trail to the fourth lake.  One slip and We would be falling about 200 ft!

It took us about two and a half hours to reach the fourth lake.  It was beautiful.  Most of the peaks were covered in snow.  Huge boulders surrounded the lake, but there was a small flat area just big enough to fit our tent.  

After we set up camp we dropped our poles in the water.  Within a few minutes both of us started catching fish.  They were biting like crazy, and so were the mosquitoes.  I think by the end of the trip I had so many mosquito bites that my bites had bites.  We caught and gutted a total of five fish that day.

Sunday we hiked back down the trail and drove over to South Lake where we did the remainder of our fishing.  It started off really slow.  I mean realllllllyyyyy slow!  Two hours and neither one of us had caught a fish.  As we were about to pack up  my dad's pole started to bend rapidly.  He yanked up the pole and reeled in a nice sized Rainbow Trout.  This started a fish catching frenzy which ended in a total of eight fish caught in under an hour!  We were so excited!

So our fishing trip was a success and the four hour drive home was cake.  I had a lot of fun hiking around with my dad for a couple days.  There is nothing quite like surviving in the wild with nothing but what you have on your back.