The time was from the very end of the road (from the trailhead that will not be named). I started early in the AM, so it was still cool, since there's not a ton of shade on the trail and it was kind of warm the day I was there.
I didn't pack in a tube, but there is a nice large and flat rock on the north end of the lake that I fished from, which was great for casting from, but after reading Buzz's post on how to best fish this lake, that might've been a major part of my problem.
The stream down in the valley is "pay to play" private water, so I'm not to sure how well they'd take it if someone accessed "their" water via the hard way. I'd either pay the fee and access it the easy way from the east, or skip it entirely (my personal preference) and avoid the bushwacking hike. Lots of other good streams and lakes in that area with NO fees at all.
--FlyGuy (Dave)