Mt. Lola

photo of group by Paula

It had been well over a year since the extended group did Mt. Lola. So our group of 5 (Paula, Tammy, Akiko, John, and Elly) filled our car at 7:30 and drove north of Truckee to find the trail again. It was easier this time, wending our way up the extremely dusty to trail to the fantastic meadow that helps feed Cold Stream. Once again the wildflowers were stupendous and continued to be at every flat wet area until the waterfalls. There we rested and ate lunch number one. Then up to the ridge - not as windy as the week before and up through the snow to the peak at 9148 feet, the highest in Nevada County. The peak, however, was plenty windy so we sat down in the shelter and ate lunch number 2. Some female hikers and their adorable toy poodle came along and sharedthe shelter with us. It was fun to see Castle and Basin Peaks where we had hiked the previous Wednesday. We hoofed it down pretty fast, amazed at each turn lower down that the car did not appear. Finally we made it only to be thwarted on the return ride by a long wait on 20 where they were still working!!

We had hiked just under 11 miles!! With an almost 3K elevation gain. Phew!

Wildflowers:

Ranger's Buttons or White Heads (members of the carrot family)

Crimson Columbine

Lupines

Alpine Lily

Corn Lily or False Hellebore

Mule's Ears galore

Buckwheats on top of mountain

Penstemons

Monkey Flowers - yellow and pink

Larkspur

etc.

I haven't heard from the other group. Did you do Mt. Judah Loop? Or do we do it next week?