Sunny October Hike to Loch Leven Lakes

Loch Leven Lakes today, off Hampshire Rocks Road west of Truckee on I-80. The full loop is about 7.6 miles round-trip with 1,330 feet of climbing, but the lower lake comes at 2.5 miles, and that was plenty with a three-year-old on foot and a baby in arms. There's a side trip to Salmon Lake on the map, another 1.8 miles — filed away for another year.

Mid-October in the Tahoe National Forest and it felt more like September. The willows along the water have gone yellow but everything else is still green, and the lake was flat enough to hold the whole ridgeline upside down. The big kid did most of the trail herself, climbed around on the granite slabs above the water, then sat down on a rock and refused to move for a while, which was fine — nobody was in a hurry.

The baby mostly rode and watched. Downhill went faster than up, the way it does.