Roses Knob to Grays Lake (Washoe County, Nevada)

 

Just a few miles southwest of Reno, Mt. Rose rises to dominate the city's horizon and surrounding it, the Mt. Rose Wilderness offers numerous hiking trails. I've hiked this area quite a bit over the years, but when Deanna's hiking group posted a trip to Roses Knob and Grays Lake within the wilderness area, I wanted to take advantage of trail I had not explored. Besides, I always have a great time with this group.

Meeting at Sierra Summit at 8:30, we caravan-ed up to Tahoe Meadows, found parking, and met up with the remaining group members - 16 of us in all. The trail starts out very easy as it follows a forest service road, but then quickly leaves the road and enters the forest and quickly crosses a fairly sturdy bridge over a small creek. As usual, the group starts to splinter a bit. Everyone here is a strong hiker, but some have a faster pace than others. The group is always good about stopping occasionally and allow everyone to regroup though.

As we hit the junction with the Tahoe Rim Trail, we take a right and head North, as we believe this is the correct direction. Even though it's mid-August, we had so much snow this past winter (record-breaking) that snow-patches still cover some sections of trail, but nothing bad enough to hinder us significantly. After about a mile and a half, we start to question our route and start pulling out the maps. We quickly realize that have taken a wrong turn. We are currently headed north towards Relay Peak, when we should have been heading south towards Roses Knob. We give Walt, who was sort of leading the charge, a good-natured ration of hell and turn around to head back for the junction. He takes it in stride and we all get a good laugh out of it.

Returning to the site of our error, we take the other fork as the trail overlooks a magnificently flowered canyon that opens up into Incline Village and Lake Tahoe below. Though I have lived in this area for several years now, I'm still always in awe of the size and beauty of this jewel of the Sierra Nevada. This vantage point is spectacular for seeing the whole of the lake. 

The trail continues around Roses Knob, a small peak names for it's much larger neighbor to the north. Four of us, who have put some distance between us and the rest of the group decide to wait for the others to catch up. After a couple of minutes, we decide to climb the steep hillside above us and head for the summit. It's a pretty precarious climb that eventually travels over a large boulder field before reaching the top, but we eventually make it. The view is terrific, but knowing the group will be catching up soon, we head back down.

The way down is even more treacherous as we must traverse more boulders - larger ones this time. The boulders themselves aren't the difficult. It's actually the negative spaces between boulders that pose the most danger. We carefully maneuver ourselves across the field and eventually hit the treeline again. With no trail visible, we bushwhack west, knowing that we should cross the trail at some point soon. As we carefully navigate, we hear hear the tell-tale sign of a rattlesnake under a nearby rock or tree. It's only a quick rattle, but taking know chances we go on high alert. Soon, we hear the voices of our group, but a large wall of snow separates us. We make our way around it and soon rejoin some of the group. It turns out that some of the other members had hiked up another side of the peak, which is why they were delayed. It's not matter though, we had agreed to meet at Grays Lake in the valley below.

We make our way for the lake. From above the lake looks like a green meadow, but once at the mouth of the creek running out of the lake its obvious that the lake is just rich with lush grasses, enough so to camouflage it from above. A quick rock hop across the creek and we reach a nice section to rest and wait for the others, who arrive just a few minutes later. We take a few minutes to socialize and eat some lunch. Suddenly, we hear the rumble of thunder in the distance and while the trees mostly obscure our view, we notice some gray clouds moving in. 

Not wanting to be on any peaks when the lightning starts, we quickly put on our packs and start making our way out of the bowl valley. We push our pace pretty hard, but as we cross the feeding creek at the northeastern section of the lake, I have to stop for a shot back at the lake. Strangely, as we cross the ridge back over to the eastern side of the the sun is once again shining and there is no sign of the thunderheads we heard. Ah well, better safe than sorry. We take a few minutes to enjoy snacks, cold beer, and each others company at the trailhead before parting ways. As always, it was a terrific time with some terrific people. With our 'detour' at the beginning, we put in a total of about 10.2 miles with some good elevation gain.