Hardest 3.5 miles ever...at least for us!

GF and I went camping up at June Lake.  We stayed at the Oh! Ridge campground on the lake.  We arrive on Sunday and set up camp.  We plan on a hike of Agnew Lake, Gem lake and some of the the other lakes up there the next day. We pack lunches, water, and snack attack packs for the trip.  WE set off for Silver Lake and park at the base.  We start off crossing a feeder creek that comes out of Silver lake and begin to go up, not so bad so far.  The temp is climbing and you tend to stop to catch your breath (starting elevation 7600 Feet).  We are moving up, as is the tempature as well.  We come around a corner and there is a Ranger there.  We chat with them, and it seems they are there to help keep the Paparazzi in check.  Seems the small town (village) of Silver lake is a site for an upcoming Tom Cruise movie (Oblivian is the name).  Seems the trail to Agnew Lake is a good spot for paparazzi to take the $100, 000 picture (so I am told).   GF and I chat with the Ranger for a bit and go on out hike.  the combination of elevation and terrain make this a rough hike.  Between rest breaks (frequent), lunch, and picture taking of every waterfall and plant it ook us 4 hours to make it to Gem lake at 9600 feet.  We have some gorgeous views, but the wind had to be gale force winds once we crossed the crest to Gem. 

We stay for a few minutes and then head back down, we gave up on the idea of going all around the other lakes in the area.  The wind was just to strong.  As we are coming down a pack mule train is coming down, and three guys are coming up the trail.  We do the curteous thing and stand off to the side as far as possible to let the horse and mules go by.  We tellt he guys coming up the trail horses are coming, and the lead guy gives os a sneer " I can see that!." His buddy about falls off the mountain because he doesn't take his phone away from his ear long enough to pay attention to what is going on.  The horses and mules go on down the trail and the guys pass us.  I notice two of the guys are carrying identical black bags with tripods.  I tell gf after they are out of ear shot, that those guiys are Paparazzi.  She asked how I knew?  What other two hikers on the planet would carry the same bags with identical tripods? 

We see the Ranger on the way down and he confirms they were indeed jack ass Paparazzi.  I told him you should of given them a bacon necklace and let the bears take care of the rest! He got a chuckle out of that.  For the record I never saw Tom , or anyone else.  All in all we had a great hike, and could not understand why anyone would waste their time on a mountain side to get a picture of some actor when they had the high seirra's to look at!  Some peoples priorities are definetly out of whack!  PS  GF said in the future she is going to pay more attention to hikes marked with an "S" Strenuous or M.F. Strenuous.

Thanks for sharing your hiking trip and experience with us SK.

We want non-Paparazzi pics!   

I bet those guys were P.O.'d to get that assignment. Good read. Thanks, Kevin.

I have to do pics when I get home.  You know LA types, if it isn't neon they don't know who to appreciate it!

Okay some pics for you guys!