For three years in a row now, we’ve had a backcountry permit to visit Gem Lakes in Little Lakes Valley, and for three years straight we’ve had to cancel because of lingering snow (the lesson here is to not book a LLV permit for June dates). Needless to say, the place has been on our radar for a while, and, since we were heading north to spend the night in Bishop before starting our Yosemite trip, we decided to acclimate by lugging our full packs on a Little Lakes Valley tour. Leaving home by 6:30am, we stopped in Bishop to grab some sandwiches at Schat’s Bakery before continuing north another 50 minutes to the Mosquito Flat trailhead above Rock Creek Lake – waiting a few minutes for a parking place in the full upper lot, we headed out a little after 11:30. Moving easily southward up the level trail, after about a half-mile we started climbing up the first of several short inclines before Chris realized he hadn’t packed his or Jane’s lunch. Jane quickly dropped her pack and headed back to the car, neither Chris or Pedro arguing with her initiative – she was back after about 30 minutes, stating flatly that she was to be given credit for literally going the extra mile, which was duly noted. The appeal of Little Lakes Valley, apart from its stunning beauty, is the gentleness of the trail – the parking lot is above 10,200′, and the 3-1/2 miles to the head of the valley only gains about 800′ over that distance. On the other side of the first hill, we successively passed Mack, Marsh, and Heart Lakes before climbing again a short distance to a glacial moraine forming the western limit of Box Lake. Continuing south, we again climbed up another level to Long Lake, crossing Rock Creek for the first time and walking along the lake’s east side. All the way, we talked about backpacking the valley with a larger of group of family and friends on a return trip – we thus decided to not follow the trail all the way to Gem Lakes, our someday-later camping location, and instead turn around at Chickenfoot Lake, located a few hundred yards east of the main trail at 10,800′. Climbing up the steepest grade of the day so far, we turned left at the signed junction and followed the lateral trail up through open forest and pretty meadows, eventually circling northward to the lake itself – the western shore was alternately rocky and marshy, but we picked our way along it for 100 yards or so to a suitable lunch spot on the water. Clouds had begun to thicken, and we ate our sandwiches under largely overcast skies, but the sun started to break through about the time we were ready to head back. We headed west cross country over a low hilltop and through two shallow gullies back to the trail, discovering some wonderful campsites atop the hill in the process, and retraced our steps northward. The closer we got to the trailhead, the more people we encountered, eventually finding ourselves in a knot of about 15 hikers descending the final slope back to the parking area – not necessarily a great location for those seeking solitude, especially at the start of a summer weekend. Still, this was a beautiful place for an easy 6+-mile hike, and the thin air wound up being a great warm-up for our four days in Yosemite that followed. We’ll no doubt be back.