Trail description of Duck Pass from the Hiking & Walking website: This nice hike visits two scenic lakes and then climbs to a pass on the Pacific Crest with great views of the lakes basin. An overlook to the south of the pass provides panoramic views of Duck Lake and the Silver Divide.
Another excellent trail with beautiful scenery. Again we enjoyed good weather. Duck Lake is easily accessible, the trailhead is right next to Mammoth. We arrived at the trailhead at 9 AM. A couple of annoying mosquitos at the trailhead, but that was the only place we encountered these pests on the hike. There was a whole bunch of high school students there - we learned that
they were the cross country track teams from various high schools in Fresno. Every year, the team comes up for a week in the summer to train at high altitude. They soon dashed off - almost all of them carrying cell phones, but none appeared to have a water bottle. The kids these days...
The map shows a trail next to Arrowhead Lake, but we took the alternate route that led by Emerald Lake. Emerald is a small, beautiful lake with picturesque mountains in the background. We saw a few raindrops making ripples in the reflecting lake surface, that was the only
percipitation we felt all day. There is a bit of elevation gain after Emerald Lake, we had to climb a bit to reach Skelton Lake. Barney Lake is reached soon after Skelton. There a few switchbacks as the trail winds up the mountainside to reach Duck Pass. We could see hikers ahead of us, so we knew that the hike went all the way up to the top of the cliff. Looking back, it is easy to see the switchbacks below us, the elevation gain is rapid. Looking back
also gives many fine views of Barney Lake and the Mammoth Creek Valley as we climbed higher. Eventually we reached the summit and soon were rewarded with a nice view of Duck Lake. The trail leads down to Pika Lake, but instead we walked north-east a short ways until we had selected the optimal lunch spot. We did hear a couple
of distant rumbles of thunder up here, but that was the extent of the bad weather threat. If we had kept going, we would have reach the junction with the John Muir Trail. We met three women who were headed there to begin a nine day backpack trip along the trail. The previous year they had spent a week on the JMT and exited at Duck Lake Pass,
so this year they were resuming their journey along the 211 mile trail. Hiking back was easy of course, it was all downhill. We were back in the parking lot at 3 PM. We spent a while trying to name all the bands from the 80s that we could think of. That night, Ramone cooked up his tri-tip steak recipe. Jim left about 3 AM in the morning for the 1000 mile drive back to Colorado,
which apparently he did in a single long amazing day. I was glad he been able to join us for at least half of the hiking trip.
Panorama Photos
