Rockbound Trail Loop

I did this loop in two nights, July 9-11 2022. I spent my first night in China Camp, which I wouldn't recommend. While the Rubicon is a pretty little river, China Camp and its surrounding areas have a lot of swampy meadows and therefore mosquitos were a huge issue. Next time I'll spend night 1 at Clyde Lake instead. I really enjoyed my second night at Fontanillis Lake. There are many campsites around there, so I easily found privacy and several nice spots to jump into the lake. Mosquitos were out, but were manageable everywhere except for China Camp. There were so many lakes and all were gorgeous with their own character. Too cold to swim for long, but I still jumped in as many as I could. There is no snow on the trail but some patches are melting nearby at higher elevations. All trails were in excellent shape with rocks laid out in granite areas to show you the way. I did not have to take my shoes off for any river crossings. Probably my favorite lakes were Lois, Schmidell, and Gillmore. Gillmore was crowded on a Monday, the other two were not. The plateau that Lois is on felt magical. The climb up Dick's Pass is not easy with a pack. My knees are happy that I went up the pass from the Lake Gillmore side, which was pretty rocky, and then went down the dirt trail on the other side. On the way up Dicks Pass, Gillmore is a wonderful rest stop to eat lunch, dunk in the lake, and refill water before making the biggest climb up. Views are amazing up there, and really the whole stretch after Gillmore. You are rewarded once you get down the other side with the peaceful lakes Fontanillis and Dicks.