Merritt Lake and Lost Lake — Wednesday, Jul. 3, 2019

Two friends and I hiked to Merritt Lake on the afternoon of July 2.  The road to the trailhead is narrow (one car width) and is rutted out from .8 miles to the lot at 1.5 miles.  Consider leaving low clearance vehicles behind.  The actual trail is beautiful and well maintained.  I agree with the intermediate rating as the first two miles are a steady incline, though we tracked the total one way distance as 3 miles.  The actual lake is very pretty!  We heard there would be lots of bugs, but applied plenty of bug spray at the beginning of the hike and when we got to the lake and didn't have any issues.  This hike is a gem as there were very few people on the trail despite it being a holiday week. We actually had the lake to ourselves since we started in the afternoon. It is also a great trail for dogs!  Our two pups gave it two paws up!