First view of Lake Vernon. The lake appeared to be frozen over from up here.

Down to the trail junction near the lake. Decided to head up the west side of the lake for a bit. Not sure what that "Lake Vernon 0.1" sign is refering to, as the trail beyond this point is substantially longer.

Stopped to rest on the lakeshore for a bit. The ice on the lake surface was only a couple inches thick and there were animal tracks on the surface.

Panorama shot from the Lake Vernon lakeshore. I headed up the west side of the lake for a bit longer, but the trail was getting increasingly sloppy.

I had originally planned on camping at the lake, but I instead decided to get a head start on the return trip. Once back up on the ridge above the lake, I stopped and cooked up a quick early dinner before continuing on.

Back a the snowmelt stream crossing. The afternoon was getting a bit cloudy, but it was still pretty bright out.

Climbing the slope back up to the Moraine Ridge trail junction. The bottom of the trail was snow free and muddy.

Back near the beehive an hour and a half later. Something had been busy boring into this dead tree. (One of several such trees I'd seen)

Update from the Sierra Naturalist yahoo group:

Here is what my husband (a guy with an advanced degree in forest
ecology) had to say about the picture of the bored tree.

"It is a classic picture of feeding by a pileated woodpecker.
Pileated woodpeckers are the largest western woodpecker and had been
assumed to be the largest remaining woodpecker in the USA until the
Ivory billed were rediscovered.
Given the snag it was going into, it was probably after carpenter
ants. Pileated will also feed on downed logs. We have them on our
property in Oregon and have seen similar feeding close to the ground
on Douglas fir snags. One dead giveaway for a pileated woodpecker is
the size and shape of the hole. Pileated almost always have
rectangular shaped holes, large in size. The nesting entry hole is
the largest around but flicker's will also have fairly large holes but
they are more or less circular."

Back to the beehive as the remaining sunlight dwindled. Had I planned better, I probably could have left my pack here and saved myself the effort of lugging it to the lake an back. Holed up and read half of Stephen Kings latest over the course of the evening.