Off we go after a 5.5 hour drive to the Warner Wilderness trail area for a few days of hiking, a nice way to avoid 110 degree valley heat. At about 12 we left the Pepperdine trailhead at 6500 feet and started the fairly exposed 2800 foot climb to Patterson Lake.
Way off in the distance is the rocky cliff we plan on camping below. The trail was fairly nice, but lots of climbing. After 5 weeks of no real elevation or climbing, this was a harder than anticipated 6 miles. Climbing to 9500 feet was also a factor.
Exposed, but pretty.
1st lunch at the junction between Owl trail and Summit trail. Wind forecast is up to 40 mph for the next 24 hours.
Real nice views
1st small lake we reached. Patterson Lake getting closer. Very windy and warm.
Lovely camp spot at Lake Patterson elevation 9500. Our group felt a bit beat up, so we decided to shorten the hike and relax more. I don’t regret that decision at all!
View towards Oregon and Nevada, near where we started.
Great sunset followed by a brutal windy night. We all got beat up by our tents and only got a little sleep. Despite rain flies, 1/2 inch of dust made its way into our tents. Very difficult night, but still a great spot.
The sunrise made the windy night worthwhile
Colors galore.
Patterson lake. 2 tiny snow spots still present
Our original plan was to climb out and continue onto other lakes. New plan is to hike down to Devils Knob then hopefully find the Cottenwood trail and head over to Tom Smiths cabin.
Alkaline flats in Nevada. Sometimes these flats are filled with water.
Devils Knob becomes visible after an easy walk down. Only a 3/4 mile detour to the Knob.
Here we go!
Nice
I’m there somewhere.
Tom Smith cabin. Kinda moldy so no one chooses to sleep in it. Fortunately the winds died down and we all slept well. 6800 feet elevation.
Sunday sunrise at the cabin. 7 miles to the cars. We did loose the trail twice the day before, but with use of my trail map (I picked up the day before at the ranger station), we pretty quickly found the trail and made it to camp early
Nice waterfall way off in the distance.
Oregon to the north Nevada to our east. Cars dead ahead.
It was a great 3 day relaxed hike, but I need to train better for my next adventure.
Tom hikes the PCT 
Beautiful! Northern California much prettier than Southern California!
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Great pictures! That was quite a high hike up to Patterson lake!
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