Murphys... Arnold... Highway 4... Ebetts Pass (8730 feet)... Big Trees... Alpine Lake... Spicer Reservoir... They are household names of this Mother Lode region of the CA Eastern Sierra. We got there just in time for the foliage season at its peak. The hidden gem is the South Grove trail at the Calaveras Big Trees State Park. The trail is five miles long round-trip with a moderate elevation gain of 400 feet. The lakes in this area at this time of the year are expectedly low. Fishing is still pretty good. It was unusually warm at this late in October with the temperature in the high 70s' even at 8000 feet elevation...