This was a long and gruelling hike – 21.3 miles and about 4700 ft elevation gain. I carried 3 litres of water, bit it wasn’t enough. But that was probably because I hadn’t  pre-hydrated enough.  When you start on the trail, you feel like you’re in the middle of a forest. Several burnt and damaged trees show the impact of the El Dorado fire.

We took the trail from South Fork, went up the Dry Lake trail to the summit, and down via Dollar Lake trail. You can refill water at the stream when you come to the fork that split off into the two trails. We didn’t come upon any other water sources. Dry Lake is aptly named – it was completely dry.

This is a pretty hike, and the weather was perfect. I started to feel unwell about 5 or 6 miles into the hike, and it was very slow going for me, so it took us nearly 12 hours to complete the hike.