It was a daring play: A subalpine hike as early as June that we didn't even start until 6pm. But this time, we lucked out. There wasn’t much snow and the longer day carried us to Horseshoe Meadow in time to build camp, cook dinner, and even make a fire before it was too dark to see. The mosquitoes were bad, but we were so glad to just get out after a few weeks without a hike that even a few bites couldn't dampen the mood.
The following morning, the mosquitoes were out in full force. We ate and packed up quickly, and finished the rest of the lollipop loop that took us by Looking Glass Lake, relying heavily on the GPS to find the unmaintained Graveyard Camp Trail that brought us back to the Pacific Crest Trail.
A note about this hike: we could not find a trail map anywhere, and only one of my many maps even had the Graveyard Camp Trail on it. If we hadn’t taken the time to map the whole thing out in advance, we would have had to turn around and backtrack. So, definitely sit with a few maps before doing this one!