Florence Lake Link on Pacific Crest Trail : Sierra Ferry Takes Hikers Hither to Yon

When the ferryboat Sierra Queen was launched on this 7,327-foot-high lake in time for this Fourth of July holiday, weekend hikers in the High Sierra knew summer had finally arrived.

The Sierra Queen is one of the most remote ferries in the nation and caters almost exclusively to backpackers hiking the Mexico-to-Canada Pacific Crest Trail and the John Muir Trail.

From now to the end of September, 3,000 to 4,000 hearty hikers in California’s spectacular high country will have cruised across this three-mile-long lake on the 32-foot Sierra Queen.

For nearly 70 years there has been ferry service for hikers on Florence Lake. There is also a store on the north shore in which to stock up on food and supplies and a place to camp nearby in Jackass Meadows.

The steel-hulled Sierra Queen, which can carry 25 passengers, is the latest in a series of ferryboats on the lake since the 1920s. Built in 1963, the boat first operated for two years as a State of California buoy tender in San Francisco Bay before being brought up here.

Brought Up on Trailer

Karl Smith bought the Sierra Queen for $5,000 in 1965 and trailered it up to the lake. He ran the Florence Lake store and ferry service from 1947 until he died in 1981. His widow, Adeline, now owns it. A daughter and son-in-law, Tom and Karla Hurley, manage the store and ferry.

Smith’s original 18 1/2-foot, 10-passenger ferryboat is a planter now standing on end in the Florence Lake store.

Dick Morrison previously owned the ferryboat and store. For years he spent winters alone at Florence Lake handcrafting boats while snowed in for up to eight months at a stretch.

Florence Lake is 100 miles northeast of Fresno, the last 21 miles a one-lane tortuous drive with scores of blind corners that winds up and down steep mountain slopes.

Rearing up majestically from the south shore of Florence Lake is 11,200-foot Mt. Shinn. The lake is embraced by glacier-carved peaks, many crowned with snow year round, and by the John Muir Wilderness. It’s one of the few places in the High Sierra where backpackers on the Pacific Crest and John Muir trails have an opportunity to pick up food and supplies.

There are, however, no phones to the outside. The nearest telephone is 10 miles from the lake. Many of the backpackers have been on the trail 10 days to two weeks without any contact with the outside world by the time they arrive at Florence Lake.

The two-mile ride on the ferryboat takes 20 minutes and costs $4.75. “Backpackers are always a happy bunch, so excited to be in this marvelous pristine country away from the crowds and the cities and towns down below,” said Pat Ferris, skipper of the Sierra Queen. She said she has yet to run across a grump on the boat.

What do the backpackers say they crave most as they sail across the lake to the store on the other side, Ferris was asked. “Ice cream. They know or have heard the store has several different flavors of ice cream cones available. They really wolf up the ice cream.”