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| The falls above Alp Lake |
Somehow, I'd managed to sleep in until the ungodly hour of 8:00 without my partners waking me up. Not a huge deal since I probably needed the sleep but I dislike sleeping in no matter where I am. It took me a few minutes to fully wake up but after doing so decided to skip breakfast and start packing up my gear. Hey, TODAY would be an easy day and I could always scarf down a couple of granola bars and Craisins
By 8:50 we began our day by climbing the same falls I had last night en route to Crystal Lake. Knowing what to expect didn't change my disdain for climbing early in the morning though Sierra Creek took on a whole different light under different light. The sky was bluer, the water shimmered a little more plus we found a stainless steel spoon! All in all a good beginning to the day.
As we climbed I remembered that "offtrail" from the backpacker.com message boards was supposed to have 9 people in his group by now and that he was going to be in the area and thought Crystal Lake would be one of his possible camp sites big enough to hold them all. I made a mental note to check not only Crystal Lake, but anywhere else in the area that might comfortably house 4 or 5 tents.
Once we made it up to Crystal I almost shit my drawers. Far across the lake was a camp with 5 tents. I could barely make out a few figures milling around camp so I shouted offtrail's real name, Joe, several times. To be honest, I expected a reply "Dorf" in return, but then realized this was a big place and it probably wasn't his group anyway. It wasn't. After returning home Joe and I exchanged an E-mail in which he told me he was far from Crystal lake the night before.
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| Crystal Lake and the Beartooths. Stellar. |
Somewhat bummed, we continued around the lake, and I eventually realized what a gorgeous spot we were hiking. The views across the lake were stupendous: Our High Pass, Castle Rock Mountain, Castle Mountain... Wow. It was almost hard to believe that we were hiking about up there not that long ago.
Once we climbed above the lake we found ourselves in a high meadow perfect for off trail hiking: lots of grass, few boulders and a clean line of sight leading directly to where we were going---at least until we changed our minds.
For the first time during the entire hike we seemed to be at a loss as to where to go. We were originally going to make a beeline for Martin Lake then follow the inlet stream up to Rachel Lake. But then we considered heading over to check out Ghost Lake just because it was out of the way.
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| Martin Lake |
The route we took to Ghost Lake turned out to be the most convoluted stretch of hiking we'd do during the entire hike. Yes, our route had it all: pointless climbs followed by pointless descents followed by more pointless climbs. So much for an easy day. To add insult to injury, we never did find Ghost Lake for to do so would have meant another climb and, frankly, we were getting tired.
At length we finally caught a glimpse of Martin Lake and the inlet stream we were originally going to follow up to Rachel Lake a few hundred feet below. Time for another decision: Contour over more rocks or take the easy way down to the the lake and hook up with the inlet stream there? This one was easy. tired of climbing, we'd work our way through the boulders and eliminate another climb---which, as we'd note later, would have been a major boulder hop anyway.
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| Rachel Lake |
Still, we had some significant work to do to get up to Rachel Lake. Though the route was straight forward, the talus here was the most unstable of the entire trip so the going was slow. It was worth the effort.
I'd been told by old friend Jim Connor that Rachel Lake was his favorite spot in the Beartooths, and it was easy to see why. Set beneath a near vertical wall on the north end, the lake's opposite shore was covered with wildflowers. Ahead of us to the east, another waterfall spilled into the calm lake from the Cloverleafs.
Since it was 11:30, it was a no-brainer to take lunch here. Shoot, we weren't going to find anywhere more scenic with soft grass to lay in anyway.
The day thus far had been more demanding than we would have liked or even planned on, but the one thing missing was a little adversary. I nearly provided just that while crossing the inlet stream after lunch. Long story short, I slipped on a rock and took in water resulting in one soaked boot/foot. Pissed off, I promptly slipped on another rock with the other foot giving me a matching set. Great, but it gets better. I dropped one of my trekking poles into the current and watched it float downstream for 50' before lodging itself on a rock. Lucky for me this is where Brad was crossing and after getting his attention Canadian Dude was able to save my pole from a whitewater journey down to Martin Lake.
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| One of the Cloverleaf Lakes |
With the excitement abating from my disastrous crossing, we began to work our way through the wildflowers towards the falls on the opposite end of the lake. The climb up the falls posed no problems and the hiking got even easier after that. Not even a half hour later we were standing on the shore of one of the Cloverleaf Lakes.
Though it was too early to quit for the day I found myself looking for campsites for any possible return visits. For those of you reading this with plans to visit the area, I didn't see much. The views looking north might have been a distraction, however. Though very similar to the views earlier in the day looking across Crystal Lake, I wasn't tired of looking.
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| The Beartooths. |
After a quick check of the maps above a small tarn we decided we'd hike down to Golden Lake and try to find a camp site there. If that failed we'd move further east to Jasper Lake, which, as we knew from day 2, had plenty of places to camp.
After a few days of going without, we were back hiking on snow for much of the last leg of the day. Once Golden Lake came into view all we had to do was drop down two hundred feet and set up camp at the point directly ahead of us.
"Hey, are those people down there?" Yes, those were people. People with packs. People with packs stopping at the point we were looking at to camp. Dammit!
Turns out they were only dayhikers camped at Jasper. It didn't matter anyway as the ground that looked so good from a distance wasn't going to make a good camp. Instead, an area across the bay caught our attention and made our way in that direction.
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| Our camp at Golden Lake (T12 609947 4986344) |
Our eyes didn't let us down. The camp had obviously been used many times before as evidenced by blackened rocks and a nice supply of firewood close by. Ward and I made a pact to rehab the site before we left. It was the first time during the hike that we were truly disgusted by someone's poor stewardship of the land.
After taking the most questionable plot of land the night before, Ward was given the prime real estate tonite, complete with the perfect cooking rock. Brad and I managed to wedge our shelters on what little other good ground was left. Even though it looked like our tents were on a slope, we were somewhat amazed at how level our tents were. in fact, i was amazed during this and the trip to the bighorns how easy it really was to find level ground in the most unlikely places.
Once we were settled we all washed up and did some laundry before adjourning to the lake for our nightly pre-dinner conversation. Tonite's topic would focus on "large rocks that could be pushed into the lake without much problem." I already knew that a couple from the left over fire ring near Ward's tent were going in but the others were across the lake or up on Lonesome Mountain so there wasn't any way they'd be getting wet tonight. And yes, I did help clean up the trashed camp by rolling the rocks into Golden Lake.
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| After a light rain we were treated to a rainbow |
After about an hour of talking stupid, it was time for dinner. Tonight I was going to go with the bacon/cheddar tuna melt. Let me just say that it was delicious and something I would eat at home if I wasn't too lazy to cook for myself.
We had just finished eating and cleaning up when the threatening skies opened up and drizzled on us for about 10 minutes. Once the monsoon ended, we were treated to the first rainbow i've ever seen in the backcountry---which is a good thing.
The rest of the night was spent talking some more at the lake and plotting the next day's route. It occurred to me that it felt a lot like our last night out probably because I knew we'd be close to the trailhead and below the tree line tomorrow night. I didn't like the feeling.
We retired to our tents shortly after 8:00 where I attempted to peel some of the dead skin off my sunburned cheeks and nose, then checking out the map one more time to see if there was any way we could spend tomorrow night above the tree line yet still about two hours from our trailhead.
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