Little Kern Lake (trip report)

“Had a great time at Little Kern Lake!(CA) My son Josh and I entered the Golden Trout Wilderness Friday evening it started getting dark so I switched on the new Tikka and kept walking until we found a decent campsite. Then we set up the tent and cooked dinner by Tikka light...that thing is GREAT!!!
The weather was beautiful and the snow is completely melted at that elevation(6,400')
The next morning we headed for Little Kern Lake.
There is a metal suspension bridge over the Little Kern River and good thing because the river was extremely fast and very full. I would hate to try and cross that on foot.
We passed through several beautiful meadows..Trout Meadow, Willow Meadows and then dropped into the Kern Canyon and on to Grasshopper Flats along the Kern River.
By this time it had gotten cloudy and started raining.We climbed out of Grasshopper Flats over one last saddle to Little Kern Lake.
The lake is different than the lakes you find at the higher elevations. There is a
50' wide sandy peninsula with Poplar trees between the Kern River and Little Kern Lake. There are beavers that live in LKL and we saw two dens.
The beavers have a log jam on the Kern River and the river is deep and wide behind it and all white water below it. Saturday afternoon after the rain stopped we were out walking on the far side of the lake near the beaver dens and happen to see one of them swimming in the lake, which is a really cool sight for a couple of California Boys. It slapped it's tail on the water and dove under.
We stayed at a little campsite on the North end of the lake, from there you could see across the lake and out into the canyon.
Sunday morning we packed it up and headed out.

28 miles of walking and we only ran in to 5 people the entire trip...cool!”

“good report”

“I dig seeing Wildlife like that. Sounds like a fun trip. On of these days I'll buy one of those Tikka lights. The Petzl has been a good one but maybe it's time to upgrade.
Thanks for the report WW. Will pictures follow soon?”

“Well paint me green..
Sounds great.”

“Great trip report Wind Walker, Thanks for sharing it with us!”

“Only saw 5 people the whole trip? That's too cool. Nice report, are you gonna post some pictures?”

“How do you get to that trail head? I live not too far from that area.”

“I'll post some pics when I get them developed!

Thin Air ...just take the 99 south to Tipton
Take the HWY 190 exit
turn east towards the mountains. You'll pass Porterville( my home town), Lake Success and Springville before you really get into the hills. The 190 will become the Great Divide Highway just
before you reach Ponderosa Lodge. A few miles beyond Ponderosa there is a short cut called Last Chance Meadow Road (22S02). It's a 4 mile dirt road that leads to the Lloyds meadow road below. It short cuts about 14 miles of paved road...but it can be a little rugged
early season. If you have a nice 2 wheel drive vehichle you might want to stick to the pavement. If you do stay on the pavement follow the Great Divide Highway until you reach a junction at Parker Pass
If you stay on this road it will take you back down through California Hot Springs.
But you want to turn left towards Johnsondale. Just before you actually reach Johnsondale there will be a road to the left " Lower Peppermint " take that road it will lead you below the Needles and to the Jerky Meadows Trailhead. I use this trailhead in early season. If you go later you can cut off an hour of drive time
by turning North at Quaking Aspen before you reach ponderosa and follow the signs to Lewis Camp Trailhead
This is a much easier way to enter when the North road is open.”

“Hey thanks, I'll try that hike sometime. :)”

“Sounds like a plan. How far from Sac is Tipton?”

“Depends on how you drive :) 4-5 hours I would think. It's about an hour south of Fresno.”