The Weaver Lake trip is the second that our group has taken in its short existence. The trip was a short one, Saturday and Sunday, and it was Kathi's first backpacking trip. The trailhead starts at Big Meadows. It’s about an hour and a half east of Fresno. Take 180 east to Squaw Valley, where you can find The Hummingbird Restaurant, a great place to stop for breakfast. Three miles out of Squaw Valley is the Hume Lake Ranger Station (559-338-2251). You must get a permit, if you plan on staying over night. Continue up 180 to the park entrance. Continue past the entrance 7 mile to the 198 turnoff and take a right. On 198 continue 4 miles to the Big Meadows turn off, and proceed to Big Meadows.

It's a 3.2 mile hike from Big meadows, and it took us about 2.5 hours to get there. Big Meadows is at 7600' and Weaver Lake is around 8700'. It is a relatively easy trail, which probably explains the amount of people we ran into. A group of fifteen stopped at Weaver on Saturday, before heading to Jenny Lake on Sunday. We also talked to a group of about 30, on Sunday, on their way to Weaver for the day. We did see a lot of people during the day, but the nights were quiet. The trees and meadows, on the way up, looked a little starved for water, due to the dry year we have had. The lake, on the other hand, was beautiful.

There are many campsites at this lake, so don't let all of the people bother you. We camped on the northwest end of the lake, which was away from most of the crowds. The lake is shallow, and easily warmed by the summer sun. The group of kids that stopped at the lake on Saturday, all went swimming.

The fishing was good; we caught 8 fish, Saturday afternoon. We were using spinners to catch most of the fish. Tom brought a fly rod he got as a birthday present. None of us have ever fly fished before, so we broke it out. We caught one fish on a fly. I think we would have done better if we had known how to use the fly rod. We caught the same type of trout as we caught at Devil’s Bathtub. Char calls them brookies.

We hiked out Sunday at noon. It is an easy hike out, but the trail was busy. We probable pass 50 or 60 people on the way out. The weather was good, clear skies, and warm temperatures. You can use The Weather Channel web sight to check the weather (zip code 93633 for Kings Canyon). Keep in mind the lows at Kings Canyon are about 10 degrees cooler than Weaver Lake.