Our hike began in the Tuolumne Meadows of Yosemite National Park. The objective was Mattie Lake- a rarely visited sub alpine tarn purportedly home to From the camp we headed west off the PCT to another trail that’s name escapes me but follows the river downstream on the north side. Our plan was to hike about a mile until we were directly south of Mattie Lake, then follow the streambed that drained the lake up the face of the range just east of Wildcat Point. I figured we had about 1.5 miles to go- an hour at most. It took us over three hours. The streambed I had envisioned would direct us to the lake never materialized. I thought the grade would be These mountain lakes don’t have much in terms of structure. Apart from the odd fallen tree, the bottom was pure mud. Mattie Lake is interspersed with grey boulders and surrounded by coniferous trees of some sort. As far as fishing is concerned, the brookies were not as numerous as advertised, but they were easy to fool. Between us we caught about a dozen on fly and spinning tackle, mostly the latter. We camped at the foot of the lake in a prior use site- I only noticed one other around its circumference. All in all it was very pristine. After two restful nights, some good grub, and a relaxed afternoon of fishing, we were ~ The Ox
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