Southwestern Burnup Tour - Sierra Nevada, Bishop, Hike to Robinson Lake, Onion Valley - September 2011

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Robinson Lake Hike

Friday, September 23

Arn was antsy. It was only 3pm or so, and he was keen to 'do something'. We had decided not to do an overnight backpack, so we were at our campsite for the night. We decided to do a short '30 minute' hike up a nearby trail to Robinson Lake, partway up one of the many side-valleys radiating away from the main Onion Valley.

Upper Onion Valley

Jagged Granite Crest

Heading to Robinson Lake

The trail to Robinson Lake was quite convenient for us: the start of it was just a few yards from our campsite. We each took a litre of water and our cameras, and headed off up the trail.

The initial grade was fairly steep, and as a result we soon had a bird's eye view back down to our campground. Soon we'd climbed 500 feet, at which point the grade of the valley floor lessened, and we continued uphill at a more gradual rate. The terrain was semi-open, with widely-spaced pine trees scattered amidst large boulders of Sierra Granite. We could see a high, craggy alpine ridge ahead in the distance.

Late-day hike

Robinson Lake

30 minutes came and went. We then decided that, well, we were most of the way to Robinson Lake, so we might as well make that our turnaround point. So, on we went. At about the one hour mark, we arrived at Robinson Lake - a nice enough oblong pond about 150 yards across. Trees clustered relatively thickly around its shores, making getting a good lakeshore view a bit difficult. Since our hike was supposed to be short and since it was getting on timewise, we stayed only for a few minutes.

A short forty-five minute downhill walk (this time along the the proper trail; the first part of our ascent had been on some unofficial herd paths) brought us back to our campsite.

Heading back down Robinson Lake Trl

Wilderness sign, Robinson Lake Trail

Arn must have fire

We spent a leisurely evening sitting around at camp. I am not a big campfire-type person, but Arn is - and he promptly went off to buy some firewood from the campground host. Soon his expert lighting skills had started a crackling little blaze, and we sat around and warmed ourselves to it as night gradually fell. Tomorrow was the day when we would try to tackle a high but relatively easy climb to a Sierra peak!