The Ottoway Lakes Loop

Mt. Florence decorates the right horizon over Red Devil Lake. Straight ahead is a sort of island peninsula. The major bay of water is on the left. A very ideal landscape in my kind of country.

Red Devil Lake

The Ottoway Lakes Loop, September 2004

On normal open Sierra terrain at last, I turned east along the shore, noting a controlled burn devouring the duff at the only real camp I saw at the lake. Near the burn was a knee brace holding together a makeshift wooden leg. Go figure.

Near the south edge of the lake I found a nice spot to unload, get out my chair and sat down for my lunch. The lake tended to have huge skirts of flat granite pavement, rocky shorelines, sparse trees and an unusual symmetry. It was a multi-part lake with one long bay to the south, a large island in the main lake, and a smaller sister lake to the east with a long skinny joint channel waterway not shown on the maps. While there I walked most all of the south shore and about half of the east shore and found no camps, but many places where one could make their own very nice comfortable sheltered camp. Perhaps (and this is very likely) further up the east shore and to the north there were established camps, but no matter, I would have had no trouble finding a comfortable camp spot. Again, I wished I had the time to stay the night there at that nice lake and explore the lake and the other nearby lakes fully.

This looking a little to the left of the above picture, looking north up the main body of water of Red Devil Lake .

After a nice rest and lunch (and a recharge of my water containers), I got out my map and compass and walked over to the east shore of the lake. Turning southeast I began to ascend the easy, somewhat shaded and convoluted slope back to the trail. It did not take long before I hit the trail at its northernmost point above Lake 9911. This is why this area was the best place to leave for and return from Red Devil Lake: you will have a good take on the terrain you must pass through on the way back, and the travel is very easy cross-country. If you are worried about finding the trail again on the way back, set a few ducks on the way to the lake.