Backpacking in the White Clouds part II

We got up on day 2 of our trip to a beautiful sunrise.
The sun first hitting the peak.

The whole ridge turning orange.
 
After breakfast we decided to go for a bit of a day hike.  Jeff had read that there was a way to make a big loop.  Part of the loop was trail and part was not.  We thought we'd give it a go.  We followed the chain of lakes and the stream that connected them up several hundred feet.

Stream.
Another lake.

Th water in these high mountain lakes was so clear that you could see the fish.  Jeff thought it was pretty funny that I was trying to take pictures of the fish in the water. Apparently the stock these lakes with fish.  How weird is that?

Fish.
Yet another lake!
We hiked up a really steep pass called "Windy Devil Pass" to get up and over the ridge.  The view was spectacular.  We could see 3 lakes from the top.

Jeff and I at the top of Windy Devil Pass

View from Windy Devil Pass

This was the view from the other side of the pass.
This is also where things got more difficult.  We went off trail at this point and it was rough going down hill.  Jeff didn't spend enough time studying the map so we got a little off track.  We were one ridge over from where we were supposed to be and missed three more lakes that were on our intended path.  The view was great but we got pretty tired.  It was a nice treat when we finally stopped for lunch and to pump some more water.

After lunch there was one last lake that was very pretty.

Baker Lake

I can't decide if I like the color or the black and white versions best, so you get both.
We met back up with a trail again at Baker lake and it was quick going to get back to base camp.  We were very tired by the time we got back.  Our short day hike was over 11 miles and half of it was without trail.  We enjoyed the sunshine at camp, baked ourselves like lizards on the huge rocks on the edge of the lake to get really toasty and then plunged in to the frigid waters of the lake only to emerge sputtering with cold and making a b-line back to our baking rocks until we dried off a little.

We had a pleasant evening and got up early the next morning to break camp and hike out.  We had some nice lighting and snapped a couple more pictures along the way. 


 
Yep, that's me

Jeff!
The hike out was quick and uneventful.  It was amazing as we where driving home how much smoke we encountered from forest fires it made us realize how lucky we were on our trip.  It was a great time we came home feeling refreshed (but sore!).

We decided that we really need to get out and go backpacking more often, it was a fantastic adventure!
 

Comments

  1. LucyAugust 4, 2013 at 6:18 PM

    I always have pictures of fish :) The lakes look gorgeous! I need to get out more too.

    ReplyDelete

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