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Flag Hike at Twin Lakes LbNA #42736

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Aug 8, 2008
Location:
City:Bridgeport
County:Mono
State:California
Boxes:1
Planted by:PenGwen
Found by: Not yet found!
Last found:N/A
Last edited:Aug 8, 2008


Porta Potties and water available at the start.

Plenty of parking available, even for large RVs.

Short hike, but plenty of altitude gain.

I had an overcast sky and still needed plenty of water.

One hour or so to go up, 20 minutes at the site and about 40 minutes to come down.

Several years ago I was scanning the top of the moraine at the Lower Twin Lakes CG when I noticed something fluttering. I grabbed my binoculars and found that someone had put a flag at the top. The Camp Host advised that two sons had put it up in remembrance of their father who had enjoyed coming to Twin Lakes many years of his life.
I thought that it would be a great destination for a hike and possibly a letterbox.

If you can book a reservation for a camp site at Lower Twin CG on Robinson Creek you will have a great location before or after the hike. If you just want to go for it without camping then there is a large parking area for the day use area and there is NO FEE.

The day use area is just beyond the CG and there is a restroom at the end of the CG that has a water spicket.

Across from site #6 you will find the trailhead for Summer Meadow- Tamarack Lake.
Head up this trail, almost immediately this trail crosses another that heads toward Craigs CG. Stay on the up slope trail. The trail goes on the edge of two flat areas on your right. At the second of the two flat areas stop and note the steep boulder wash on your far right with a group of trees toward the top. Just beyond the trees at the top is your destination. This information is for reference only, the trail keeps heading that way after zig zagging up the moraine. I kept to the trail as it looked much safer.

Once up on top of the moraine Summer Meadow will come into view and you will find that the trail heads to the left and right. Take the trail to the right and Summer Meadow will be on your left side. Soon the trail will go down slightly then back up slightly and then start back down slightly. At this point you will need to do some bush whacking so stop and look for a large pinkish boulder at about 220 degrees. Head towards this boulder and then to the large tree beyond (remember the group of large trees above the steep boulder wash.) Once the tree is in view you should see the flag about 50 yards to the left hand side of the tree.

Once at the flag you will note the obvious overhanging rock and sitting spots. The letterbox is 10 steps south of the pole to another overhanging rock and is covered with movable rocks.

You will have great views of both lakes, and the moraine. What is a moraine? Well look it up and you will be glad you did as this is a classic example of a moraine.

This last April some of the Marines from the Pikel Meadow base hiked up with a new flag, pole, cement bags and water.


When researching our clues please be aware that when previous searchers list “ATTEMPTED” on the clue sheets it may reflect more on their abilities as finders than indicate whether the box is viable or not. We do monitor our clues and boxes pretty well and appreciate the notes written to us by those that find or attempt our letterboxes.