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| Anchor Lake on a gorgeous morning |
It got cold last night and was again glad I had ditched the Montbell bag for the trip. Some frost still lingered on the ground by the time we crawled out of our tents shortly after 7:00 but for now it was a beautiful morning and the clear skies were an accurate preview for the rest of the day. The only drawback was the combination of cold temperatures and no wind had turned our single wall tents into condensation factories. Not a big deal as we had plenty of rocks and sunshine to dry everything out.
This morning I was going to eat a bunch of breakfast burritos to make up for yesterday's measly peanut butter and jelly wraps. Yes, they were good, made even better by the abundance of precooked bacon I had brought along. Even the Backpackers Pantry scrambled egg powder tasted better today than they had in the past. Great breakfast!
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| Following the Anchor lake outlet down to Jorden Lake |
The tents were still pretty wet by the time we finished eating so we had a to wait another 45 minutes to get started but it didn't matter. The views of Anchor Lake from our camp were stellar and we'd be hiking part of the day on the trail so we were under no pressure to get started. By 9:00 things had dried out enough for us to begin the short hike down to Jorden Lake.
The trip down to the lake was fairly easy and straight forward but for one tricky section. As usual, mother nature had provided just enough foot and hand holds to scale a small smooth dome, saving us a lengthy detour and/or stream crossing. After a half hour we were looking down on the sub alpine Jorden Lake.
I have to admit it was a bit odd to see a lake almost completely surrounded by green grass and wildflowers after the previous few day's worth of nothing but snow and granite. To our right was a nice waterfall, dropping straight down perhaps 125', and ahead of us we could make out a trail cut on the opposite shore.
We still had a bit of down climbing to do to get down to the lake and at times was a bit tricky but we managed OK and soon found ourselves in the unfamiliar position of hiking on lush grass and wildflowers. What a treat that was. After an easy stream crossing we were soon back on the trail on our way to Lake Elaine.
After 15 minutes of trail hiking I was about ready to get back off as the tread seemed to go straight up the northern flank of Crazy Mountain. No switchbacks--straight up. Nice.
Once we made it up as high as the trail was going to go we declared it "break time" and sat down. As usual, the views were great. We took another look at the map to solidify our route and to figure out where we were getting back off the trail. Just for fun i plugged in a couple of waypoints into the GPS just to see how accurate the map card and unit were.
Beginning again we found ourselves a short time later at Farley Lake then began a long descent through the trees down to Lake Elaine. Surprisingly, we encountered some snow still on the ground very near the lake and I again had to wonder just how much snow the area received over the previous winter/spring?
We arrived at Lake Elaine just before noon and found a good place to eat lunch by one of the lake's inlet streams. Though somewhat inappropriate, I'd be remiss not to report that Ward blew an epic fart while Brad was somewhere up in the woods dropping a dookie.
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| Sierra Creek. Wow. Cool. Amazing. |
That aside, we noted the first signs of life we'd seen since the second day on the trail when we discovered a large camp neatly hidden in the trees. Damn, i knew this would happen if we dropped below the tree line. After we started up again we discovered a faint trail which led us directly to the camp site skirting the shoreline. We decided to keep following the path until it led us to another inlet stream coming down from somewhere up above. Noting the stream took us in the general direction we wanted to go, we followed it uphill until we arrived at a beautiful, flat meadow.
There wasn't a trail, but a party had been through here within the past few days so we kept following in their footsteps towards Green Lake, directly to the east.
When we got to the end of the meadow it was time to make a decision. We could see the glimmering Green Lake below us through the trees but we also knew we were close to Sierra Creek. Following the creek would take us up to Summerville and Castle Lakes. From there it would be maybe 45 minutes to Alp Lake and just a bit further to Crystal Lake.
We decided to leave the "trail" and bushwhack our way up Sierra Creek which we could hear somewhere close by.
Sierra Creek. I'm thinking "a quaint little stream meandering through a beautiful meadow dotted with wildflowers". Wrong. Sierra Creek was a raging torrent of whitewater. Also, the creek came down from the plateau in a near straight line, enabling us to thoroughly check her out. Canadian Dude led the way upstream and it seemed like he had been here before as every little change of course he made seemed to be the right one.
After what seemed like a very short climb we could see that things were about to open up. Once at the top the creek widened out and we discovered we'd have to cross. As we edged our way along the bank I took a look around the corner. "HOLY CRAP!"
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| Brad and falls at Sierra Creek |
An absolutely beautiful waterfall spilling down from Summerville Lake lay before me. My exclamation got Ward's attention who also hollered out a similar comment loud enough for Brad to hear. This was enough for Brad to come over and take a look himself. He was equally impressed.
Ward and I donned our water shoes while Brad plunged right in. The crossing was another easy one and we found ourselves on a small bench overlooking the falls to the northwest, Sierra Creek running north and south. It was an incredible vantage point and we gave serious thought to camping here for the night despite the fact it was only 1 PM and the level ground was littered with animal droppings of all sorts---large and small.
Naturally with a view this good it was time to take a break and look at the map. While we did this, a group of hikers magically appeared behind us on a trail that probably led down to Green Lake on the opposite side of Sierra Creek. For good measure we could also see another trail heading back down toward Lake Elaine. It didn't matter since we knew we had just hiked up to this spot taking the most scenic route possible.
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Above Jorden Lake
Sierra Creek |
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Anyway, the group of hikers average pack weight must have been in the 60's. One poor young man looked like he was dying carrying a load considerably heavier than the others and we immediately felt a bit sorry for him when we saw him struggle on the boulders. In fact, we felt sorry for all of them when they were on the boulders as it seemed to take them forever to move the few hundred feet they were visible to us.
We decided that Brad should venture out on his own up to Summerville Lake to try and find a camp site for us while Ward and I checked the map. When he came back he informed us that there was a lake up there (duh) but nowhere to camp. So after spending an hour in "heaven", as I called it, we shouldered our packs and began picking our way over the rocks that had given the other party so much trouble.
It didn't take us long to get up to Castle Lake and soon discovered the other group just starting to get their tents up. Some of them shot us some dirty looks---possibly jealous of our light loads---and didn't acknowledge our greetings. Whatever, probably too tired from humping too much gear.
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| No words can adequately describe Sierra Creek. |
After another half hour of easy hiking we arrived at tiny Alp Lake. Though the topography didn't look as it appeared on Google Earth, it was a stellar place to set up camp for the night. After looking around a little bit after getting situated I discovered our beautiful site was probably the least scenic
for a half mile in each direction.
To our north, a tamer Sierra Creek meandered through, that's right, a meadow. To the south another picturesque waterfall cascaded down to the lake. Northeast was the very stream we'd followed up to Flat Rock Lake a few days earlier.
For what was supposed to be an easy day, we found ourselves fairly wiped out. We started above the tree line, dropped down below, then back up to the tree line again. We probably only moved a little more than two miles as the crow flies from Anchor Lake but probably hiked closer to 7. As a result, I spent nearly an hour just sitting and drinking as much as I could up until dinner time.
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| Camp at Alp Lake (12T 606442 4989953) |
After dinner it was time for me to do a little exploring on my own. First I went down to Sierra Creek and attempted to climb up the stream coming down from Flat Rock. I made it up a little ways then decided to stop as I was only wearing my Crocs at the time. I then followed Sierra Creek back to camp and then up to the waterfall across the lake. There were at least three tiers, each with it's own little mini falls, that I could see, probably more. I sat for a while, waved to Ward and Brad some distance away and thought about the trip, my mom and family back at home. I'd been away from home for 11 or 12 days and was starting to get the urge to go back.
By 8 PM we were back in our tents, physically tired and tired of battling flying insects that suck your blood. I spent some time with my map and GPS trying to figure out the best way to stay higher up on the plateau yet limiting our hike out to less than two hours. I suspected no matter the plan, we'd have a very average campsite our last night out.
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