Three Bears: Little Bear Lake

Shasta-Trinity National Forest

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3

static map — Yellow and orange lines for day 2. Click for interactive map

After finding that we had selected a camp site with a view of Mount Shasta, we got ourselves fed for the morning explorations.

013: some bright bits in a sky with a big mountain in the distance — Dawn light on the clouds around Mount Shasta.

We got ourselves together for a little day hiking and headed out. Judging we were already to the point of starting the cross country required to get to Little Bear Lake, we headed out into the somewhat trackless, but cairn rich, granite.

014: canyon with a pointy top — Up on the granite on the far side of the creek from Bear Creek Trail.

015: rocky ledge with green stuff growing over some — We generally followed along ledges.

016: Mount Shasta over a green valley — A lot of uphill on granite with a lot of views of Mount Shasta.

There are a lot of possible trails, all a little hard, but most not too hard. We didn't all follow the same trail sections, cairns, or ledges, but we stayed pretty close. We could all see each other. After a lot of maneuvering along granite rocks, I found myself overlooking the small pond that seems to be labeled Wee Bear Lake.

017: little lake from above — Wee Bear Lake.

018: clouds forming on the south slopes of Mount Shasta — Mount Shasta making some of its own weather.

We backtracked a little to go around the little lake on the east side where there's some trail. There's probably a route on the west too, but that looked a bit easier. It's a quick stroll past some well used camp sites to Little Bear Lake.

020: lake and some rock around — Navigating around Wee Bear Lake to Little Bear Lake, which is just over the little lip of rocks in the trees.

021: lake with a few chunky trees and a view — On the way around Wee Bear Lake.

023: water and steep sides — Coming upon Little Bear Lake.

025: big camp — Tougher to get to, but better camps.

027: panorama with clipped corners — At Little Bear Lake.

I wanted to head around the lake to the inflow, which turns out to be a route with an okay use trail as far as another impacted camp site, then slightly scrambly to finish. Others wanted to head up to a minor above and look out over to the drainage to the south, but first they went swimming.

029: meadow among rocks — The tiny, marshy meadow where water flows into Little Bear Lake.

The inflow is on the south side of the lake and I found flowers growing there that I'd expect a bit earlier. Perhaps it took a while for the snow to clear this deeply shadowed area. They're not the marsh marigolds I took them for, so not quite as early flowers as I thought at first.

030: white flowers — Marsh grass-of-Parnassus along the inlet stream.

031: lake view to the short edge — A look across Little Bear Lake from the inflow to the outflow.

I waited by the lake as the others headed up the mountain for the peak on the east side. I admired the cliffs and watched the clouds start to show off a bit of energy. They actually went to a pass and became satisfied with the view.

034: cloud puffing upward — There's some energy in that cloud.

Once folks got back from the eastern pass, we all headed off. Half the group headed back the way we came to later lounge around Big Bear Lake and do a bit more swimming. I went with the half aiming to get over the western pass to Big Bear Lake more directly, then back along the use trail we'd given up on in the night.

035: lake with a big rock — Leaving Little Bear Lake. There's camps behind the big rock and in the trees on the right. The eastern pass behind it all doesn't look so high from here.

There was use trail at first, but it faded in the middle. There was mostly something to follow all the way up. At one point, people popped up from the other side making it pretty conclusive we wouldn't have to turn back and retrace our steps, at least if we made the right choices.

037: much of the lake becomes visible — Getting higher, but much of the lake still isn't visible all at once.

038: green hills overview — Getting more of that view out from the valley.

039: mountains through a low pass — Now some of the view through the low pass. The passed over minor peak is the treed one on the left.

There's more use trail where we topped out. The other two decided we simply must bag a minor peak, so off we went to a minor peak.

040: cliffs over short leafy brush — Gaining the pass, there's the cliffs over Big Bear Lake visible.

042: view out to more mountains — Gaining the minor peak. For more view out, one needs to be at the shorter end of the long bump.

043: lake at the bottom of a lot of slope — One last look at Little Bear Lake.

044: ridge line to a higher peak — The pass from the minor peak.

045: another lake below bigger cliffs — Big Bear Lake sits below even bigger slopes.

The original plan on starting up was to head back to the pass from the minor peak. From the peak, there's a little trail down that the other two decided to follow instead, putting us in a slightly different upper canyon that would join a little way down, but not before going steeper. It works, though. There's another that looks tempting to skip a lot of the traverse along the side of the lake later, but the other end of it looks waterfall-like.

046: big lake, closer, with a lot of big granite between here and there — On the way down to Big Bear Lake.

047: tiny water body below — Minute Bear Lake? Bear Puddle?

048: reflective water — We stopped by the puddle.

We were next to an enthusiastic inflow for the last section of the drop to the edge of Big Bear Lake.

051: lake with trees sticking above the majority brush — Nearly down to Big Bear Lake.

052: lots of water — We stopped by the big lake. Big Bear Lake.

Once at the lake, we found that we would have gotten to some nice, large camp sites had we managed to navigate the use trail safely in the dark and the rain. We came down at one and the other two wandered over to another they said was even better when they decided to go see a slab of rock that drops into the water.

053: lake and pass and much rock and brush between — Looking along the south end of Big Bear Lake to the pass between it and Little Bear Lake.

We turned to face the challenge of the use trail around the edge of Big Bear Lake with a suspicion that we'd be able to try the other direction if this one didn't work. It was much nicer in the light and with the brush dry. We did pass through a tunnel in the tall bushes, maneuver across boulders and down another, and then pass the dirt and rock, sometimes with tall steps, section we were already familiar with.

055: open space in the brush — This bit of trail is easy.

We got back to camp to find Mount Shasta was hiding, but it came out again for sunset. As much as the clouds gathered and towered and generally threatened, they did not decide to actually rain again.