July 24: Lake 10,467 to Pinedale
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| A last look at our site |
The next morning began as every other with sunshine and but a few clouds. I still wasn’t thrilled with the idea of beginning our hike out today but kept reminding myself that I ws looking forward to a decent meal myself. As usual, I was up at 6:00 and decided to take my morning walk towards the other end of lake 10,467 and the other inlet stream. I got some good pictures from up above then made my way back to camp.
Once there Yumi and I talked about hiking out the 13-14 miles today in one shot. I was lukewarm about this but figured we might as well---even though I wanted to go back via Lester Pass and spend one more night out someplace.
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| Little Seneca Lake. |
By 8:30 we were packed and started down the trail towards Island Lake. We ran into two groups of two heading in. Carl and Bruce from Seattle were on their way in to do some climbing and we spent 15 minutes of pleasant chat time with them at the foot of the lake. After parting ways we had top make the 350’ climb back up over the ridge between Island and Little Seneca Lakes while dodging a group of Amish men hiking in to do some fishing. So in the space of 20 minutes we had seen more people than we had the past two days combined.
Once we reached Little Seneca Lake a decision had to be made: continue back to the trailhead or get on the Highline over Lester Pass to the Pole Creek Trail. We chose to hike out the remaining 10-11 miles today.
As we were hiking along the western shore of Seneca Lake a large group was approaching from the other way when I heard one of them yell out “Dorfinator”--my backpacker.com message boards name. Turns out this was one of Squilax’s groups on their way to Green River Lakes. Naturally I had to chat with them and “Colorado dcs” who yumi and I had met in Glacier two summers before. Small world.
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| We enjoyed a comfortable night at the Log Cabin Motel. |
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The rest of the hike out was punctuated with a lot of up and downs and incoming hikers until we made it to Photographers Point. Once there we knew the balance of our day would be 5 miles of downhill hiking. While stopping to rest a group of young trail maintenance workers arrived. They were hiking to Cook Lakes to do some work on the CDT. Spent about 20 minutes talking with them and then got up to finish up.
The last few miles were physically brutal despite the downhill grade and well-maintained trail, but we made it back to the trailhead just after 4 PM. Now all we had to do was figure out where we’d stay for the night.
Once again, the ladies at the Pinedale Visitor Center came through with a cottage at the Log Cabin Motel, run by a personable gentleman originally from Minnesota. Once we got settled in and showered it was a no-brainer for us to go get dinner at the Cafe on Pine. Seeing the look of satisfaction on Yumi’s face while she ate her seafood pasta made the 14 mile day worth it. My Lasagna wasn’t bad, either. Another trip to Falers would provide us with breakfast and lunch supplies for our visit to Yellowstone and the trip home.
