About 7 months ago we made a pledge to spend the summer scurrying about the mountains and getting into fine shape for our upcoming trip. I think we managed maybe 3 day hikes (with our friends Lynne and Jimbo) and 1 over-nighter (almost within sight of the truck).
Lake Serene:
What a great little hike! Only 10 miles return. I think the book is wrong. I think it's actually 8 miles up and 2 miles down. There were long sections of stairs. I think I counted 11,867 steps.
A scene from Cynthia's cameo appearance as Bobo in"Gorillas in the Mist"
There is a nice little side trip that you can take to Bridal(veil?) falls. About a mile or something.
And now for the payoff...
Was it worth it? I think not. The hike would have taken about half as long as it did, but I had to stand around patiently waiting for the hordes to pass by. Whenever someone came up behind us we would step aside and wait until they were out of sight before proceeding. That way I could pretend we were the only ones there. Trouble is, sometimes you feel like you're going backwards. I like to take pictures in this manner (omitting the GUPs) so that next year when I develop Alzheimer's I'll be able to look at these and think I was someplace remote.
Windy Pass:This was a great hike. The trail was reasonably flat, there were no people (to speak of) and the scenery was spectacular!
One of the most basic hiking guidelines is the concept of carbohydrate loading. We just prefer to do it after the hike!
Blue Lake (number 637)
Blue Lake is another nice little hike. Only about 400 people there, and 4000 bugs per each. And a great bonus. We got to watch a bull dyke forest ranger haranguing some people sitting on a rock across the lake who weren't holding their jaws just so.
HURRY UP!!
Lynne forgot her skis in the parking lot again. Hope they're still there when we get back.
We were thinking of booking in here for the night . I hear the staff are very good.
Old Man Willow?
Blue Lake is another nice little hike. Only about 400 people there, and 4000 bugs per each. And a great bonus. We got to watch a bull dyke forest ranger haranguing some people sitting on a rock across the lake who weren't holding their jaws just so.
HURRY UP!!
Lynne forgot her skis in the parking lot again. Hope they're still there when we get back.
We were thinking of booking in here for the night . I hear the staff are very good.
Old Man Willow?
I only had my PhD (push here, dummy) camera with me so had no polarizing filters. I had to make do with shooting through my sunglasses occasionally.
No sunglasses
Sunglasses
Um...gay.
Independence, Pass and Coal Lakes:
We decided that we wanted to give our NZ kit its shakedown cruise so decided to hike up to Independence Lake and spend the night. As you know, we didn't have a summer so the snow took a lot longer than usual turning to mud this year. As a result, when we got to Independence Lake, there was only one dry flat spot and it was taken by a pack of dudes. So we had a nice boiled lunch and hiked all the way back down.
Independence Lake
We decided that we wanted to give our NZ kit its shakedown cruise so decided to hike up to Independence Lake and spend the night. As you know, we didn't have a summer so the snow took a lot longer than usual turning to mud this year. As a result, when we got to Independence Lake, there was only one dry flat spot and it was taken by a pack of dudes. So we had a nice boiled lunch and hiked all the way back down.
Independence Lake
Almost to the top of the Pass Lake hike we lost the trail in the snow. Fortunately my GPS showed us the approximate location so we just slogged on. Not much of a going concern.
Pass Lake
After strike two we decided to just camp at Coal Lake which is just about 200 yards from the car park. Funny thing though, we had the place all to ourselves. Maybe there's a lesson here.
Coal Lake
All this diligent hard work paid off though. I lost 1.376 pounds! According to Dr. Oz I only have 26 to go (22 with control-top panty hose)!
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