ET's Info-Stew

15:19 - The first leg of the hike was fairly easy, though for someone in my shape...well let's just say I'm glad we stopped when we did. At around 6,600 feet, Lower Twin Lake has plenty of shade provided by pine trees. The trail to here is about 4.5 miles and the trail head is about the same elevation. The first part is uphill about 600 feet, summiting near an excellent view of Lassen Peak, then downhill in stages until you reach Upper Twin Lake.

The trail heads around the north side of Upper Twin Lake, but there wasn't much for camping. So we bushwhacked around the east side of the lake. Not seeing anything we liked we continued on heading north until we ran into Lower Twin Lake.

Lower Twin seems to have fewer loitering day-hikers, but there is a fair amount of traffic coming from both Rainbow Lake and the Cluster Lake directions. Plus, it's right on the Pacific Crest trail and we saw several of what we suspect were through-hikers.

We found a decent spot elevated from the water a few hundred yards north of the trail split to Rainbow Lake. This works perfectly with my plans to day hike to Cinder Cone tomorrow.

The wind is fairly brisk so it's a little cold even at 15:30. But a swim in the lake is still tempting.

22:11 - The water isn't too cold in the lake, though it is still brisk enough to require me to ease my way in. We have seen at least a dozen deer and unfortunately they seem not to fear humans. It's likely they will repeatedly make their way through our camp over the night.

Also, we have other campers at the lake and they are quite noisy. Nothing like getting away to a quiet place and camping next to loud people in a place that really carries noise.