In 1890 this unique lake was noted as having a 20-foot-diameter floating mat of grass and shrubs, whence the name. In more recent times there have been several floating, grassy mats, and more mats ready to slough off from the lake's soggy northwest shore. It's a mys- tery why mats slough off at this lake and not at any other, for in all other respects this lake seems quite ordinary. Anyway, mats do slough off here, replacing older mats that break up. Therefore chances are very good that you'll see at least one island floating in this lake. Co- nifers ring this lake, denying space for a legal campsite. Climbing toward Cathedral Lake, you leave Floating Island Lake and parallel its inlet creek to a nearby gap. From it an essentially cross-country route-formerly a trail-traverses south 0.2 mile to a trail from Fallen Leaf Lake. We head southwest up our trail, lined with wildflowers, currant, service-berry, sagebrush, and other shrubs we've seen, and soon come to a saddle immediately west of a little rocky knoll. From its juniper-covered summit, free of mosquitoes, we can relax and take in a panorama that includes most of Lake Tahoe, some of Fallen Leaf Lake, and beyond it the granitic summits of the Freel Peak massif.

   Mt. Tallac's summit area is now visible, and it beckons us onward, so we make a brief descent to Cathedral Creek, cross it, and meet a trail from Fallen Leaf Lake. This descends, excessively so in one stretch, 1.0 mile to a junction about 130 feet above the lake's west shore. From here a trail heads 1!3 mile south to the private grounds of Stanford Sierra Camp, while in the other direction it heads 2/3 mile north to the Fallen Leaf Tract summer homes. There's hardly any space to park at this north trailhead, and the hot, steep nature of this trail to Cathedral Lake makes it the least desirable route to Mt. Tallac. Just a few minutes' hiking past the trail from Fallen Leaf Lake, our trail from Floating Island Lake reaches Cathedral Lake. Named for its proximity to Cathedral Peak, which is not a peak but rather a cliff on Tallac's southeast ridge, this mostly shallow lake does sup- port a few trout. Its water is clearer than that of Floating Island Lake, and swimming is fair along its south shore. As at the previous lake, legal campsites 100+ feet from the shore are hard to find. A path of sorts skirts the lake's west and south shores, from which one can climb a chaotic jumble of huge talus blocks for a view of the Tahoe scenery. However, better views are at Tallac's summit, so make a very steep climb 200 feet above Cathedral Lake to a trail segment with water usually running along it. Bordered with monkey flower, forget-me- not, larkspur, fireweed, thimbleberry, and other hydrophytic plants, this short stretch is an excellent place to take a lunch break, since it may be your last dependable source of water. Beyond it the trail climbs steadily and steeply up the sloping floor of a cirque toward its headwall, which usually has snowfields well into August. Several trails, formed on talus through continued use, try to avoid most of the snow. The correct route has a switchback leg that climbs south up to the top. Once on it we have great views east, south, and west-a taste of what's to come. We leave the edge of Tallac's southeast ridge as we hike northwest up an increasingly steep trail borqered by currant, gooseberry, snow bush, spiraea, and sagebrush. Also, clusters of western white, lodge- pole, and whitebark pines speckle the slope. Near the 9000-foot level, the brush diminishes and wildflowers become more predominant. At about the 9400-foot level you may see an abandoned trail going directly downslope, leading unwary descending hikers astray. Finally, in just over 200 yards, we reach a junction with the trail from Gilmore Lake (see Hike 17). Enjoying a breather while taking in a view of the lakes and ponds below, we can identify circular Gilmore Lake in its cirque southwest of us, Susie Lake on a bench beyond it, and Lake Aloha along the east base of the granitic Crystal Range.

   There being now only 200 vertical feet to climb to the summit, we first head east to a weather beaten clump of conifers, which makes a good wind-protected emergency shelter, but is no place to sit out a lightning storm. You should not attempt to climb to this summit-or any summit-if a storm is impending. We now follow a rocky route, first northeast to the brink of a dangerously steep avalanche chute, then diagonally northwest for the last few steps to the pointed summit. Most panoramas from any high summit are spectacular, but those from dark, metamorphic Mt. Tallac are exceptional. Because it stands so close to Lake Tahoe, it offers a view of almost the entire lake, and we can study the major currents that swirl about in it. Standing above Tahoe's northeast end is andesite-capped Mt. Rose, which at 10, 776 feet is the basin's third highest peak. Along the east shore rise the granitic western slopes of the Carson Range, which remain unglaciated because they lie within a rain shadow cast by the Sierra crest above Tahoe's western shore. Today the western crest receives 70-90 inches of precipitation annually, whereas the eastern crest receives only about 30-40 inches. Along the lake's south shore are the readily visible Tahoe Keys, which together with the highrises stand out in this basin as a monument to man's economic exploitation of a unique high-mountain lake basin that should have been a national park. Southeast of this shore rise 10,881-foot Freel Peak and 10,823-foot Jobs Sister, ranking first and second among the basin's peaks. In the distance to the southeast is the 10,000-foot ridge near Carson Pass. To the south rises granitic Echo Peak, and beyond it Ralston Peak, the unseen Echo Lakes lying between them. West of Ralston Peak is Pyramid Peak, the high point and south end of the Crystal Range.