Tuesday Hike: Jenkinson Lake

One of the first things I did upon retiring was join the local Tuesday hiking group.  Brett and I went on our second hike with the group today — the first one was the Persimmons and Turtles post last week.  The hike this week was close by; up at Jenkinson Lake which is just eight miles up a fairly steep and very windy road from us.

It’s a friendly group of retirees; some who hike fast and some who hike slow; some who are talkative, some who aren’t, and some who know a whole lot about the local plants and animals.  On alternating weeks they go on a long (6-10 miles) or short (4-6 miles) hike.  This week was a long hike; nine miles around the perimeter of the lake.  We joined a subset of the group that hiked to the waterfall and then turned back — still a respectable six and a half miles.

The water in the lake is very low right now.  The lake is a reservoir for drinking water for towns further down the mountain, in the foothills.  They’ve been taking water from the lake all summer, with not much coming in so there was a lot of shoreline exposed.  Depending on how much rain and snow we get, the lake will fill by spring.  It is fed primarily by snow melt.

Along the way, we passed this gorgeous Pacific Dogwood.

Surprisingly, there was water splashing down at the waterfall.  I had expected it to be dry.  It wasn’t the mad, spray drenching, torrent that is there is spring but, still, it was water.