Matt and I took the trailer out for its 2010 inaugural shakedown trip this weekend. We headed out on Friday amidst cloudy and rainy skies to Red Bridge Campground on the Mountain Loop Highway. Just as we were pulling into the campground, the rain stopped and the sky started to clear. I backed the trailer into the spot perfectly the first time. Leveling the trailer was another story, but we were set up and relaxing by 5:30 PM under increasingly sunny skies with a crackling campfire—absolute heaven in my book.
We did a short hike on Saturday up to Independence Lake—a short but spectacular hike to a pretty lake that still had a fair bit of snow on it. The snow pretty much obliterated most of the trail to the further North Lake, so we opted to stop for a lovely lunch in the sun at Independence Lake. The sky was blue, the sun was warm, and the only sound we could hear was the birds. In fact, we ran into very few other folks—seems everyone was else was down at Lake 22. When we drove by there, the parking lot was crammed full and the overflow of about 20 cars was lined up on the Mountain Loop Highway. I’m sure the trail was a mad house of people. Not really the hike experience I’m looking for.
I imagine that all of those folks either went to the Ranger Station looking for a sure thing (no snow to deal with) or they hadn’t thought of an alternate destination, so they had no Plan B to fall back on when they saw how crowded this trail was going to be. Lake 22 is a nice destination, but there are many great hikes in that same area that aren’t much harder to get to. The experience at these other trails may be more of an unknown than Lake 22, but isn’t that part of the adventure of getting out into the wilderness? I knew that there was a strong possibility that Independence Lake would still be snowy and that there might be too much snow to continue on to North Lake, but I opted to try out the unknown trail for a new—and much less crowded—experience. I encourage you to try out trails that aren’t well-travelled or well-known crowd pleasers. At best you find a new favorite to go back to and at the least you have a new place to explore.
June Hike Signup:
Open signup for June hikes is going on right now. Feel free to sign up for as many hikes as you would like. Available hikes are listed below.
Signup for July hikes and the Cougar Flat Campout will begin on Wednesday, June 23rd at 9:00 AM. I will send out a July hike list on the 21st. At the same time, I’ll also be sending out details of the Cougar Flat Campout (July 16-18). This information will describe the weekend and how to get registered for camping and for the hikes held in the area on this weekend. Those hikers camping at Cougar Flat have priority for hikes being held in conjunction with this weekend.
6/20 (Sun/Father’s Day)—Anna May Brennan, Pratt-Olallie Saddle (9 miles, 2,400’ gain)
6/18 (Fri.)—Midweek hike, Sue Shih, Mt. Baldy (9 miles, 3,000’ gain)
In June, the first of several WTA Trail Maintenance work parties is coming up. The link to sign up for this trip and the others is located on the CHS web site in Course Document>CHS Trail Maintenance Flyer. (http://www.mountaineers.org/seattle/chs/CHS/Class_Resources.html)
CHS Pictures:
If you took any pictures on your hike this weekend, please be sure to forward them to chshiker2008@gmail.com to post them on the picture site for everyone to view.
Have a great week and I look forward to hiking with each of you soon. Please contact me if you have any questions.
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