On the trail: Two fine Sierra lakes, both worth the hike

I lived in Minnesota, famous as "Land of 10,000 Lakes," and while I barely checked out a dozen or so, I found most of them cool and pleasant.

Not Sierra lakes, however, and since moving here I've hiked dozens of our lakes. Two that I think offer stark contrasts are Meiss and Shearton lakes. One is off the trail and not very popular; the other is off Highway 88 just past Kirkwood and isn't all that popular. One is unparallel beauty; the other just a nice place to visit.

Meiss Lake trail head (there isn't actually a Meiss trail head; you've got to start out heading for somewhere else) is at the west end of the sno-park just pass the Carson Pass Ranger station on Highway 88. Plenty of parking there. Just look up and you'll spot the trail.

Alternately, you can drive a mile more and park at a different trail head on your right; parking can be tight here. But you'll save about a mile of not terribly interesting trail. This trail connects with the Pacific Crest trail which continues on to Showers Lake northwest. But our trail goes up for about 1.5 miles and maybe 500 feet of vertical to a saddle with a small pond on the left. Cattle graze here so this is not the fragrant area of the Sierra.

On your left you'll see a lofty peak of 9,445 feet; on the right is Red Lake Peak at 10,061 feet. From the saddle it's a gentle downhill and pleasant walk; not very rocky here, the trail is most decomposed granite dust.

By now you're in the midst of a fine meadow with a cabin and barn of the left along with a branch of the Upper Truckee River. The cabin and bard are used for wintertime backcountry trailing.

Leaving the meadow you enter a stand of big pine trees. This area wasn't logged for timber for Virginia City in the Gold Rush days, so some have trunks 6 feet in diameter. There's also lots of downed trees.

About a half-mile after branching off from the Pacific Crest Trail start looking to your left for a faint cow path seemingly leading to nowhere. There are a couple of such trails and they wind up at Meiss Lake. Usually you have to watch for the soggy patches getting to Meiss, but the drought has dried up a lot of the muck.

There is a marsh surrounding much of Meiss so try to stay on the high ground going between three ponds that surround the lake. If you get bogged down, turn around and take a new angle. The eastern side of the lake is marshy and seemingly trick with water lilies (but aren't, I've been told).

There are plenty of rock outcrops offer a fine place to sit and contemplate the lake and the skyline. This is a shallow lake and you can wade from one shore to the other. (Needless to say, don't drink the water).

Sitting on the rocky sites is a fine moment to have long thoughts about mountains, water and their relationship.

The area is usually rich in Sierra Nevada plant life and birds flutter about. If you have a guide to plants of the Sierra, bring it along (I keep meaning to buy one). This is a sweet place to stop and break some bread and perhaps wine.

After you've enjoyed this placid setting you might want to continue to Round Lake, about three-quarters of a mile along the original trail you bushwhacked off of. Or go back to the Pacific Crest Trail and continue to follow it for a mile to Showers Lake. Round Lake is the easier of the two with Round Lake the bigger of the two.

If you've had enough head for home. One of the interesting parts of heading back on the same trail is all the things you see that you missed going uphill. It always amazes me to see flowers and rock formations that I missed going up.