Day One --
· We arrived at parking lot at 7:30a.m. We started hiking at 8:00a.m.
It took 3.5 hours
to reach the lake. Reid wanted his mommy
after the first tenth of a mile, but we made it
(after about a dozen
breaks).
· The distance was 3.75 miles according to the global positioning satellite
("GPS") device
that Reid brought with him.
· We saw twenty hikers in two groups on the way up to the lake.
· Three hikers arrived at lake mid-afternoon; only one of them fished.
He wondered
how we were catching so many fish.
· It was sooo peaceful that Craig counted airplanes. (There were 52
that day.)
Day Two --
· The hikers left early in the morning.
· We carried belly boats on our backpacks. Reid went out on his own in
the morning
and caught a couple of fish on the beaded BWO trailed behind
a beaded Hare's Ear
nymph.
· Craig went to get water on the other side of lake. Fifteen minutes
later (around 4:00
p.m.), it started raining. Craig hid under the
rock near the old campsite. It hailed four
times between rainstorms.
The largest hail stones were one-half inch in diameter.
(Refer to the image on the corresponding 'Picture' page 'captioned 'We Have
Hail
Stones'.)
· 2.5 hours later, Reid yelled across the lake 'Craig, get over here right now!
The tent
is floating away!'. About seven minutes later, I
arrived at camp. I discovered that the
rain had created miniature
streams of water. There were 5 or 6 of them and they were
all
flowing directly to our tent. While it was still raining, we pulled up
all of the tent
stakes and moved the tent to higher ground.
Everything was wet except the sleeping
bags and the clothes that we slept
in.
Day Three --
· About 4:30 in the morning, another rainstorm went through the valley.
There was lots
of lightning and thunder and rain. It cleared up
mid-morning and was overcast the rest
of the day. Reid caught 6
fish on a #12 Gray Adams with a ginger tail.
(Refer to the image on the corresponding 'Picture' page captioned 'The Reddest
Cutthroat Trout You'll Ever See!'.)
· We had the lake to ourselves that day. It was a good thing because Craig
didn't have
any pants, thanks to the storms the afternoon before.
(Refer to the image on the corresponding 'Picture' page 'captioned 'Craig Without
Pants'.)
Day Four --
· We started fishing around 6:30a.m. at the inlet where the glacier feeds water
into the
lake.
· We packed up camp and started hiking out at 12:20p.m.
· We arrived at the truck around 3:10p.m. after hiking the last mile in pouring
rain.
· According to the GPS, the hike back was 3.9 miles.
Although we had a difficult time with the Saturday afternoon storms, on Sunday
evening,
Reid mentioned that he realized why Craig faithfully returned to
the lake every year.
It's a special place.