A Little (Big!) Birthday Adventure at Florence Lake

With summer coming to an end soon (nooooo! I was getting used to the 8 pm sunsets), I thought I would finally share the biggest highlight of my summer, and that was my birthday adventure in a little-known gem of the Eastern Sierra called Florence Lake. What makes it so little known, and what makes…

Linda Ly
Florence Lake

With summer coming to an end soon (nooooo! I was getting used to the 8 pm sunsets), I thought I would finally share the biggest highlight of my summer, and that was my birthday adventure in a little-known gem of the Eastern Sierra called Florence Lake.

Florence Lake

What makes it so little known, and what makes it a gem? For starters, it’s not easy to get to — once you leave the main highway, it’s a solid 3 hours on a relentlessly winding road through the foothills and into the mountains, even though you’re only traveling 90 miles. Florence Lake is small-ish compared to its big sister, the nearby Edison Lake, and therefore doesn’t have the facilities that a larger lake would offer. But what it does offer — and what sets it apart from Edison and many other lakes in the region — is extreme solitude, boat-in camping, and remote campsites that face both a river and a lake.

With Florence Lake “closing” today due to the lake being drained for the year, I thought this post would make an appropriate send-off for this little end-of-the-road sanctuary.

By “end of the road,” I do mean it quite literally. Florence Lake sits at the end of Kaiser Pass, off a skinny, semi-paved, one-lane road notorious for being the worst maintained road in the region.

Kaiser Pass

Unless you’re backpacking in from the John Muir Trail or Pacific Crest Trail, this road is the only way to Florence Lake. It’s a high-elevation adventure with spectacular views, so you’ll have to negotiate with your friends ahead of time that while one person keeps his eyes on the road, the other takes plenty of pictures (or better yet, video) for a show-and-tell around the campfire.

Kaiser Pass Road

Kaiser Pass Road

The ironic thing about Kaiser Pass is that for being such a remote road, we actually passed a little less than 10 cars coming from the other direction. Most of this one-lane road drops off a steep precipice several hundred feet on one side (with no barricades or even natural barriers), so if you’re unlucky enough to meet, say, a Suburban whose driver can’t drive, you have to back your car up (on a bumpy, curvy road) no less than 100 feet to tuck yourself into a narrow pull-out. And then said Suburban driver passes you without even so much as a wave or a nod. Some people.

After making it to the end of the road (with my guy insisting that he wanted to drive that road going home since I got to do it first!), we pulled up to this pristine paradise.

Florence Lake in the John Muir Wilderness

Florence Lake is a sapphire jewel surrounded by walls of granite in the John Muir Wilderness. It could almost pass for Yosemite — but without the crowds.

There’s a tiny general store on the lake, and we rented a fishing boat from them to haul our gear across the water to the campsite. While filling out the paperwork for the boat, I asked the gentleman in the store about a day hike I had read about, a trail that starts near the campsite and leads to a hot spring in the middle of a meadow.

He jovially mentioned that the hike was “right around 5 miles” and “pretty easy,” though he’d never done it. When pressed for the actual location of the hot spring, he said it was just past Muir Trail Ranch. (A couple weeks prior, I had actually called the ranch and the woman didn’t give too many specifics on the hike either, only saying that with our low snowpack this season, we could probably cross the river to get to the trail. Online sources state the length of the hike as anywhere from 4 to 8 miles, flat to steep, well-marked to not at all. Why all the mystery with this little hike? We would soon find out.)

Once we had our boat, we had to load it. It was a 6-person aluminum fishing boat and you’d presume that with 4 people and 2 pugs, we’d have plenty of space to pack in our gear, right? Obviously, you have never gone car (er, boat) camping with us!

Boat camping is an adventure

Not only did we have all of our tents, sleeping bags, backpacks, camp kitchen, camp furniture, camp accessories, and four (but more like seven) days’ worth of food and booze, but we also brought, among the four of us, three kayaks, a stand-up paddleboard, and three fishing poles. We were ready for an adventure!

Packing our boat for the trip across the lake

The wind had picked up that afternoon when we arrived, so we only wanted to make one boat trip across, a four-mile ride to the other side where the South Fork San Joaquin River flows into the lake.

It took us an hour to pack the boat with Tetris-like precision, and we even packed the kayaks with gear and strung them on lines behind the boat.

Towing kayaks behind our boat

You might imagine that a fully loaded fishing boat towing three kayaks across a choppy lake with blustery wind and two pugs hanging on is pure comedy, and you’d be absolutely right.

Boat trip across Florence Lake to our campsite

But this was no ordinary campsite. A little work to get there simply meant less people around. We found a beautiful, primitive site on the water with views of the river on one side and the lake on the other.

Campsite at Florence Lake

Campsite at Florence Lake

South Fork San Joaquin River flowing into Florence Lake

We set up our basecamp kitchen and built not one, but two fire rings — one for the bonfire, and one for the cooking fire. We were living in luxury.

Dual fire pits

And with two fire pits, that meant we needed to go choppin’ for some firewood!

Chopping down firewood

Gathering firewood

As night fell, we saw fish — lots of them! — jumping out of the river, but of course we didn’t catch any trout that evening, or the next few mornings and evenings after. Good thing we packed all that food and didn’t have to go Bear Grylls on them.

Fishing at dusk

The next morning, the second group of friends arrived and they too brought the kitchen sink (as well as the bedroom, the living room, the bathroom…).

Friends arriving on the boat

I almost felt guilty for not really roughing it in this wilderness, but all that was dashed when I watched my friend string up an outdoor solar shower above slabs of granite with a little toiletry bag hanging on a tree. And with an unobstructed view of the river. That, my dear readers, is how we roll.

Setting up the outdoor camp shower

We relaxed at camp for most of the day, then took our toys out on the water.

Despite being summer, it was still early summer, and the lake was as cold as the river as the snow melting into it. I went for a paddle on the lake and even my pug enjoyed it too… for about 40 minutes, until the wind started up and it felt like victory at sea.

Stand-up paddleboarding on Florence Lake

Paddling with my pug on Florence Lake

Paddling with my pug on Florence Lake

Stand-up paddleboarding on Florence Lake

The eastern half of the lake is dotted with granite islands and pulling up to one of them really feels like you’re on your own deserted island.

Granite island

Up the river a bit, we discovered a little rock slide (fun!) and a short section of baby rapids (double fun!).

Kayaking up the river

Paddling up the South Fork San Joaquin River

Rapids and rock slides on the river

Rock slide on the South Fork San Joaquin

That night at dinner, I broke out the popcorn popper and whipped up a pineapple upside-down cake in the Dutch oven.

Firing up the popcorn popper

Freshly popped popcorn at camp

Call me silly, but I really had no idea that the cake does, in fact, need to be flipped upside down after it bakes. It took three mountain men to heave that cast-iron deliciousness onto a platter without appropriating it to the bears.

Flipping the pineapple cake upside down

(A little camera trickery here attempts to hide the burnt bits — I mean, the extra caramelized bits — on my first pineapple upside-down cake ever.) The verdict from the Cast Iron Chef judges? “That was goddamn delicious!”

Pineapple upside-down cake from a Dutch oven

Sunday was our hiking day. We still had no clue where the hot spring was or how far the trail took us, but we didn’t think twice about winging it. Had we known better, we might have started the hike just a tad bit earlier. Just sayin’.

We took this picture at our campsite, in front of the outdoor shower, just before we set off on the hike. Kinda like proof that we had been there… you know, in case that picture would be the last recorded account of us being seen anywhere.

Getting ready for our hike to Blayney Hot Spring

With no visible trail from our campsite, we scrambled across the boulders until we came to a footbridge. It passed over a gorgeous section of the San Joaquin with cascades flowing downriver. Was this what the ranch lady meant by crossing the river? It seemed easy enough, and we thought that maybe the river level was very low this year.

Footbridge over the South Fork San Joaquin

On the South Fork San Joaquin River

Cascades on the South Fork San Joaquin River

We found a trail and continued on it for the next couple miles. It was a fairly steep climb to start, but leveled out into lush green meadows surrounded by towers of granite.

Hiking to Blayney Hot Spring in the John Muir Wilderness

Lush green meadow

Granite peaks over a lush green meadow

We even passed a field of wild garlic!

Wild garlic

The trail took us into the John Muir Wilderness at an elevation of about 7,500 feet. We didn’t pass a single other hiker along the way, which was remarkable considering it was summer in the Sierra.

Hiking in the John Muir Wilderness

Hiking in the Sierra

We saw majestic horses grazing in this idyllic scene, tails flicking, ears perking curiously at us, and even though we knew there was a ranch nearby, we still pretended they were wild horses. It just seemed more romantic that way.

Wild horses

Wild horse

The only thing we knew about this hot spring was that it sat above Blayney Meadow, but where Blayney Meadow was located on our GPS was somewhat of a mystery. We passed two meadows, each time hoping to see a sign, but with every passing hour the hot spring seemed like a Shangri-La.

Somewhere along the way we stopped for lunch and took a dip in one of the tributaries of the river. Honestly I would’ve been happy to idle there the rest of the day, but we had gone too far to not continue.

River tributary

Taking a dip in the river

Taking a dip in the river

Taking a dip in the river

Another mile or two up the trail, we finally saw our first sign indicating that a hot spring did indeed exist!

Sign to Blayney Hot Spring

We were also paralleling the perimeter of the ranch, with its backcountry cottages peeking into view, so we felt we were very, very close.

Cottages at Muir Trail Ranch

After one or two more miles (or was it three or four or…? We were starting to lose sense of time and distance) we passed a second sign showing the way to Blayney Hot Spring.

Second sign to Blayney Hot Spring

At this point, the sun was waning and we knew we’d probably have to finish the hike with our headlamps.

We turned to the rest of the group and posed the question: Should we go on, or turn back? The GPS showed one more meadow in the vicinity, but it was on the other side of the river. We were still at least 30 minutes away from that point, and for all we knew, the hot spring might have deteriorated into nothing more than a mud puddle in the ground.

After a few minutes of hesitation and deliberation, we decided to press forward.

Hiking to Blayney Hot Spring

And this was what we saw 30 minutes later.

San Joaquin River, with our trail on the other side

Just how badly did we want to find this mythical hot spring? The trail continued on the other side, but it required a ford across a swiftly moving current — there and back.

I finally understood what the ranch lady had meant when she talked about a river crossing on the trail. It was this river crossing, which presumably on an average snow season, was not crossable until late summer when the river flow was lower. I also knew that if she had mentioned this particular marker, it could only mean the hot spring was just a hop, skip and a ford away.

We rolled up our pants, took off our socks, and secured our packs. Tentatively, we entered the river.

Fording the San Joaquin in early summer

Crossing a river is like walking on a set of slippery bowling balls that you can’t see. The water came up to our knees (or thighs on the shorter folks) and was cold and swift, but not so swift that it would sweep us downriver had one of us fallen.

Crossing the San Joaquin

Crossing the San Joaquin

Fording the San Joaquin River

Once most of us had made it at least halfway, the nervous tension turned into relieved giggles and we all finished crossing without any casualties.

Fording the South Fork San Joaquin River

We quickly picked up the trail, which turned narrower and marshier. This time, it really did feel like we were very, very close, because some hot tubbin’ hippies before us had laid a trail of stepping stones on the muddy path, leading into a wide open meadow.

Hiking to the hot spring

Trail to Blayney Hot Spring

Not more than a couple hundred feet ahead, we finally, finally, found our Shangri-La.

Blayney Hot Spring

Blayney Hot Spring is one of the most stunning natural springs I’ve hiked to — right up there with Arizona Hot Springs on the Colorado River, and those are pretty hard to beat. But Blayney comes close, and it’s really unfair to pit these two wonders against each other because they’re so wonderfully different in their own way.

The hot spring is a deep natural hot tub fit for 10 of your closest friends, and just beckons you to take a running cannonball into it!

Cannonball into the hot spring

It was about chest deep, a perfect 100°F temperature, with little sulfur smell and a sandy bottom.

Blayney Hot Spring in the John Muir Wilderness

Hot spring in the middle of Blayney Meadow

All around us were the mighty peaks of the Evolution Basin. You couldn’t hear a thing out there in that vast wilderness, aside from the occasional rustling of leaves. It was magical.

Solitude in Blayney Meadow

We broke out a few cans of PBR (’cause we’re classy like that) to toast my birthday, my friend Clinton’s birthday that same weekend, and that amazing moment we were all sharing.

Tossing back beers the way we know how

Soaking in Blayney Hot Spring and toasting our birthdays

But we couldn’t soak it up for too long, because by that time, the sun was going down quickly and we wanted to cross the river with some light left. A bit begrudgingly, we got dressed and started our way back.

Blayney Hot Spring

The good thing was, even that quick dip in the spring soothed and relaxed and rejuvenated us for the hike home. The bad thing? We still had another eight miles to go and it was highly doubtful those rejuvenating effects would last.

Starting the hike back to basecamp

Last light on the mountain

The last two hours of our hike were in complete darkness, with only a stream of headlamps lighting our path. It was actually quite beautiful to be walking through the John Muir Wilderness, across the valley and over the granite hills, with our only sense being the sounds of our breathing. Every once in a while we’d stop to catch our breath, flick off our lights, and simply enjoy the show of stars overhead.

We made it back to camp just before 11 pm. I have no idea how I managed to fire up dinner that night, especially since I was both tired and hungry at the same time. Hunger won out, and I even baked a special birthday cobbler for Clinton — blackberry peach! — before we all passed out in our food comas.

Cast iron cooking at camp

It’s safe to say everyone slept in the next day, and no amount of coffee or bloody marys could motivate us to do anything more than laze in the sun. It was our last day in the wild, and I was perfectly content in my lounger, looking out over the lake (and the river).

Lounging on the lake (and the river)

Lounging on the lake (and the river)

South Fork San Joaquin River flowing into Florence Lake

Back at the boat, we packed up and loaded in. With little room to spare in between the coolers and tables and bins, we decided to tow one of the kayaks behind and my stand-up board behind that — with me on it!

"Wakeboarding" on my stand-up board

It was kinda like wakeboarding — just on a really, really big board with less control — and I had fun carving along the wake and taunting the boat captain to go faster. I actually surfed that thing for the whole four miles across. Too bad it wasn’t a real wave! (Then again, my legs probably wouldn’t survive a four-mile-long wave!)

Riding the wake all the way across the lake

My pug enjoying life on Florence Lake

I know I’m getting old(er) when I start to forget just how old I am. It actually took me a minute to calculate the years and remember that I turned 32 in June. Most people consider the New Year — January 1 — to be the start of the new year, but I felt that my new year really began that weekend — and it began with a bang.

I clocked 16 miles in a day, kayaked, paddleboarded and wakesurfed (or hung on for dear life?) in a desolate wilderness, all in a span of four days surrounded by the best friends anyone could ask for. I left Florence Lake with goosebumps — not from the cold water, but from the excitement of the whole weekend.

The trip happened over two months ago, but looking through all the pictures and reliving those moments brought back all the goosebumps all over again!

Celebrating my birthday at Florence Lake

16 Comments

  1. Hi! Just came across your blog while researching a backing trip to the hot springs! I’ve seen several mileages on different sites. How many miles did you end up doing to get to the hot springs from your camp site? Thank you!

  2. Linda, I recently asked a question and promptly got a terrific answer.(Thank you) Since then I have looked into your world and have now become a subscriber. Your love of the outdoors, mirrors that of my own. You should bring your ‘homies” and come up for a northern Ontario adventure at our ranch! Love your “stuff”

  3. Linda, I just love your blog (blogs? Blogging?)…

    It all started with my looking up if carrot tops were safe to eat – (I was closing down my organic garden for the season – first chance at havin’ a garden in 16 years – WooHoo!); I happened to leave your page up on my computer after reading for a while…

    Then I woke up at about 4:30 a.m. for some reason; started reading about the chickens…and before I knew it, got sucked into the vacation stories and shots – and here it is 6:15 a.m.!

    Great down-home writings, wonderful shots!

    Bein’ mostly a city-boy (grew up in NYC, moved to BaaaAAAAHSton some 30 plus years ago to go to Berklee Coll of Music in ’81), I almost feel like
    I’ve missed out some substantial portion of life – although now, I can claim I’ve lived vicariously thru you guys! :>)

    That’s right….using the “new math” (what WAS that, anyway…), I’ve recently turned 60 (time flies when you’re havin’ fun!)…but I’ll always be the eternal kid.

    And to celebrate recovering from some long-term
    illnesses and afflictions (not to mention the end of an 8 year long-distance relationship – – – hey, 8 years? I can do that standing on my head…or FACE…) and whatnot, I’ve managed to get into some new exercise routines – and who knows…I may yet get to do some serious outdoor activities: a good music buddy of mine (see: http://www.cocabananaband.com), who is constantly pestering me to join him, is still hiking up mountain trails, biking…and I think even occasionally
    skiing – and that’s in his upper 60’s…and after having both knees replaced!

    So, I guess the fun ends only if one lets it end!

    Anyway, I’ve enjoyed reading your stuff – – – thank you so much for sharing; you just may have found a new fan (time-permitting, of course!) ;>)

    the FACE

    (Oh – was gonna upload a pic, but couldn’t figure out how to do it! DUH!)

      1. MaaAAAAH PRESSURE! (AS one might imagine they’d say in the south – hey, NY IS south of Boston, right? :>)

        So, just curious…how would someone go about attaching an ID pic (like, e.g., the one you got next to your name, in this “Community – Join the discussion” section)? I see that there’s a “head’n’shoulders” icon type image in the space provided for it…

        And thanks, re: the “next 60 years”; trust me – I intend to!

        Again, great info…

        And if you’re interested in seein’ some pics of that “first organic garden in 16 years” I was talkin’ about, feel free to let me know…(assuming there’s a way to conveniently do that – I have drop box…but I’ll be damned if I know how to use it effectively!)

        FACE

        1. You can attach an avatar (picture) to your comment by connecting to your Facebook or Twitter when you post (if you have profile pics for those) or creating a Disqus profile and adding a pic there. The comment avatars are pulled from one of those accounts.

          1. Gotcha – so I guess no options are available if I sign in as a “guest”.

            Again…any interest in seein’ the garden pics? I ad-libbed some pretty kool enclosures for the taller growing plants – (and got a 15 sec video on how the two pc unit was constructed so that, when the season is over, the top parts flips into the middle section for convenient space-savin’ storage!)

  4. Awesome looking trip. What did you do with your pugs during the bog hike day? We have dogs, love to camp and hike, and always battle with this problem…

    1. Our pugs are pretty calm/old and can’t handle very long hikes, so at Florence they hung out in our 6-person tent for the day. (On the other hand, our friend had a much younger cocker spaniel, and that little dog was able to do the hike without a problem; just needed to be carried over the river and across a few streams.)

  5. Linda, How fun (Florence Lake Birthday Adventure)!! I have been scoping out this place for a while and put it on my summer vacation list. Can you camp anywhere around the lake, or only at the end where the river comes in at designated camp sites?

    Did you put your food in a tree so bears wouldn’t get it, or did you just not worry about it?

    1. I believe you can camp anywhere around the lake, but the best sites, hands down, are near the river. There aren’t any designated sites, so you can set up camp anywhere and make your own fire pits.

      I saw a few bear boxes scattered on that side but they’re first come first serve. There are also plenty of trees to tie up food. We didn’t see any animals all weekend and actually left our food out at camp the last night due to being tired/drunk/lazy, but you never know!

      1. PLEASE STOP MAKING FIRE PITS. PLEASE RESEARCH LEAVE NO TRACE. CHOPPING BRANCHES OFF TREES AND MAKING TWO FIRE PITS ISN’T OK. STOP FUCKING UP MY WILDERNESS.

  6. Happy belated Birthday! I am so jealous of this bday weekend. I lived in California for 7 years and did many road trips. I miss them sooo much:( I live on the Big Island now and love it but really miss Cali! Love your posts

    1. Thanks Kelly! I suppose that since you’re in the islands now, you’ll just have to trade road trips for puddle jumper trips!

      And it sounds like you really took advantage of your short time in Cali… Some people never even get out to see this great state, so consider yourself lucky to have lived here and enjoyed it!

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