YOSEMITE'S BACK DOOR LEADS TO LAND OF LAKES.

Byline: Mike Comeaux Daily News Staff Writer

So, the holiday is only a few hours old and already you've unwrapped all your gifts and are itching for more? OK, here's another goody.

This one is too big to stuff in a box with a ribbon and bow, but it will give you hours of pleasure and, best of all, you can start planning your fun right now.

It's a trek on the Green Creek Trail through Toiyabe National Forest's Hoover Wilderness.

It is visited mostly by summer backpackers but also open in winter to the more adventurous, who are comfortable on cross-country skis when avalanche dangers are high.

The route to Summit Pass on the eastern boundary of Yosemite National Park is a 14-1/2-mile round-trip. The pass is one of the least-traveled ingresses to the park. Yosemite receives about 4 million visitors a year. Up here, you'll be lucky to see anyone at all.

This hike gains about 2,200 feet in elevation from start to finish, but it's not a strenuous trip. The work is split into easy stages as you make your way along delightfully varied terrain, through colorful wildflowers and in the shadow of gorgeous High Sierra peaks. It passes a series of sparkling lakes where trout are plentiful.

And there are lots of hiking options. Those ambitious enough to backpack beyond Summit Pass (elevation 10,250 feet) might just keep hiking west another 19.7 miles - downhill - through the remote Yosemite Wilderness to Tuolumne Meadows.

Otherwise, make this an in-and-back trip, returning the same way you went in.

From the trailhead (8,030 feet), Green Creek Trail follows the West Fork Green Creek past the gray, towering Kavanaugh Ridge. The route ushers you into Green Lakes Basin, a collection of crystal lakes situated above 9,000 feet - although Green Lake, itself, the first lake you reach, is just shy of that benchmark at 8,945 feet.

To get to Green Lake, follow the trail through pine woods and, briefly, along a dirt road which is used for cabin access in the vicinity of the trailhead. As you head farther upstream, you'll be almost constantly within earshot of the gurgling and cascading water. Upon entering the Hoover Wilderness, you'll climb 13 short switchbacks.

After covering a distance of 2.4 miles, there is a junction. The trail to the right is a 1-1/2-mile spur ending at West Lake (9,867 feet). It's a popular destination for day-hikers, although through-hikers will take the trail to the left and go another quarter-mile to Green Lake. It's scenic, the fishing reportedly is good and there are plenty of attractive spots for camping along the wooded shoreline.

Pushing on past Green Lake, hoofers ascend some gentle switchbacks in the first half-mile, shaded by stout pines and amid patches of wildflowers in red, blue and yellow.

Two miles beyond Green Lake is East Lake (9,458 feet), the largest of the lakes in the basin. Single-minded hikers might want to keep going, but I and my hiking companion pitched camp here and went fishing.

I landed a 10-inch rainbow trout, using lightweight line on a small spinning reel with a pink Rooster Tail spinner with a gold blade. Minutes later, that lure was lost when I got another bite and the fish shot out of the water four or five times, snapping the 2-pound leader. A couple of uneventful hours passed before we hooked an 11-inch brook trout that gobbled a black spinner with a gold blade.

Beyond East Lake, the trail winds past small Nutter Lake (9,568 feet) through wooded areas and along reddish, iron-rich rocks that characterize this area at the foot of landmark Dunderberg Peak, a 12,374-foot sentinel.

The path wanders among big lodge pole pines and tiny meadows decorated with wildflowers overlooking quiet Gilman Lake (9,486 feet), a mile past East Lake. For scenery, this ``land o' lakes'' definitely rates 10 out of a possible 10.

Next, the trail reaches the East Fork Green Creek - an easy crossing on a fallen log or boulders - and then heads southeast toward a looming peak unnamed on maps.

The track runs parallel to the creek, gaining elevation as the ground surface changes noticeably, from mostly soil to mostly coarser material and stones. About a mile beyond Gilman Lake, you come upon the first of the two Hoover Lakes (9,800 feet), twin jewels in talus fields at the southeast foot of crumbling 10,964-foot Epidote Peak. Here, the trail is easy to follow even though you're picking your way across avalanche debris.

After threading your way between the lakes and along the far side of the northern pool, there's another stream crossing and a couple of sets of switchbacks. A mile past Hoover Lakes, and after an elevation gain of roughly 300 feet, there's a junction with a trail that veers to the left - the Virginia Lakes Trail. Keep to the right, however, and begin the final ascent to Summit Lake, gaining another 200 vertical feet that culminates in three short, strenuous switchbacks.

A mile past the junction, the payoff is your first glimpse of Summit Lake (10,200 feet), a long body of water with trees along its northern shore, nestled between two pinnacles. At the far, western end of Summit Lake is the pass. Beyond that is Yosemite. We camped beyond the summit, a few hundred yards downhill among limber pines, and enjoyed the spectacular view down into the park. It extended like a green carpet toward gray summits in the distance.

Below in Virginia Canyon, hawks hovered in the strong wind for a minute or longer, then dipped a wing and descended on their prey. Deer cautiously circled our tent at dusk. Bears came after nightfall, but our food was safely strung up in a tree beyond their reach.

The next morning in Summit Lake, we caught eight or nine brookies, the biggest about 7 inches, and released them all. They were biting equally well on a Kastmaster spoon with a silver and blue stripe, a dry fly on a bubble float and a spinner on a bubble.

Few people and a few fish over a few miles; it's a Green journey worth

scheduling in late December.

IF YOU'RE GOING...

Green Creek Trail to Summit Lake is an out-and-back trip, returning on the same route in which you went, although you could make it the beginning of a one-way trip to Yosemite National Park's Tuolumne Meadows if you've parked a vehicle there or made other arrangements.

To get to the trailhead, take Highway 395 north from Bishop, past Mono Lake, then turn left (west) on unpaved, unmarked Green Lakes Road 8.4 miles north of Conway Summit. The trailhead is at the end of the 9-mile road, past the free Green Creek Campground.

The hike is found on the Dunderberg Peak 7.5-minute series topographic map.

Allow 8 hours to complete the 7.2-mile route to Summit Pass, and about half that time for the return leg back to the trailhead. That's only hiking time; you can allot as much time as you like camping out along the way.

An overnight-camping permit is required for the Hoover Wilderness. It can be self-issued free of charge at the Mono Lake Visitor's Center, one quarter-mile north of Lee Vining on a bluff overlooking Mono Lake, and the Bridgeport Ranger District now through the last Friday in June (for those who can handle the snow that piles up on the road leading to the trailhead). From then until Sept. 15 - the backpacker-quota period - permits are issued on a first-come, first-serve basis on the day of travel.

Starting March 1, permits are also doled out by mail for $3 per person up to three weeks before the hike date by writing to the Toiyabe National Forest, Bridgeport Ranger District, HCR 1, Box 1000, Bridgeport, Calif. 93517-1000.

Information: [phone].

CAPTION(S):

Photo, Map, Box

PHOTO (Color) At 9,458 feet elevation, East Lake is a blue crystal in the high Sierra, fed by snowmelt from the Page Peaks.

Mike Comeaux / Daily News

MAP: (Color) Green Creek Trail

Dionisio Munoz / Daily News

BOX: IF YOU`RE GOING ... (see text)