Thursday, June 22nd --
My friend and I left his house at 3:20am. We arrived at the backpacking
trailhead at 6:30. We started hiking
at 6:40 and arrived at the
lake at 9:43. As we hiked, the reservoir was very low. (Refer to
the corresponding photograph.) My friend told me that it was because
that the snow fall was weak that winter and that reservoir
water was
needed to help out the farmers. Further along the trail, we noted feces
from deer and elk.
During the past 4 out of 5 years when my friend has gone with me on the
trip, he has had leg cramps. This
time, he didn't get one until we
were about one-quarter of a mile from the lake. When we reached the last
log
bridge before arriving at the lake, we noticed that it still hadn't
been repaired or replaced from the previous
year's storm that occurred
while we were at the lake.
When we arrived at the lake, we noticed that it was higher than usual.
Between 11:30am and 12:30pm, wind
sheers were evident as
low-flying clouds heading to the west while regular clouds were, as normal,
heading to
the east. At the same time, the temperature dropped
noticeably. Afterwards, it warmed back up to the
normal
temperature -- about 65 degrees. Between 1:15 and 2 o'clock, a seagull
flew over the lake, trying to
snatch fish from the lake's surface.
(It wasn't successful.) By the way, the closest ocean is about
1,000 miles
away.
Between 2:34 and 5:05, we took naps. (Wow -- 3-1/2 hours!) Unusually,
there was no afternoon rain storm.
That night, I tested how dark the sky
conditions were at about 9:30 by holding my hand in front of my face. I
was surprised that I could see it. My friend and I "hit the
hay" at about 10 o'clock.
Fish Caught: My friend -- 13 (mostly on Chernobyl Ants); me -- 3 (on red-and-white
daredevils).
Airplanes Counted: 65.
People: 0 (Perfect!).
Friday, June 23rd --
We woke up late that morning -- around 8:30! (It can be a lot of work to
sleep.) We grabbed some instant
cereal and granola bars for a
quick breakfast and went out fishing. We noticed a few spots around the
lake
where snow was left over from the winter. (Refer to
photographs.) I could hear eagles "singing" from the
trees. The highlight of the trip happened when my friend was fishing
about 10 yards from the north shore or
the lake, heard a noise near the
bank, looked up, and saw a 1,000 pound young bull moose. Wow! It
started
moving quickly along the lake along where I was fishing from my
belly boat. He said 'Craig, look!' and I was
able to get out my
camera and take a few photographs. In a few minutes, it was in the woods
and out of sight. I
kept fishing while my friend went ashore (to
go to the bathroom because he was so excited?). About 5 minutes
later, I saw a different moose. This one was a full grown female where
VERY large ears. It walked along the
opposite side of the lake in
the same direction and went into the trees in a different spot. I couldn't get
close
enough to it to take a photograph. That was definitely the
highlight of the trip.
In the early afternoon, my friend and I hiked down to the bridge to determine if
we could improve it. When we
arrived, we encountered 3 men hiking
up to the lake. (Bummer!) But one of them helped us to place a log
along side one of the logs in the water. It wasn't perfect, but it
was less treacherous to cross the stream. My
friend and I hiked
back to the lake and took naps. For the second day in a row, there was no
afternoon
rainstorm. Strange!
While fishing that afternoon, I noticed that the sun set on the west side of the
lake at 5:35 and then on the east
side at 6:35. With those times in
mind, you can imagine how close the glacier is to the edge of the lake.
That
day, the best fishing was between 5:35 and 7-something.
We ate our typical dinner -- Top Ramen and granola
bars -- at about 7:45
and stayed up until about 10 o'clock, checking out all of the stars.
Fish Caught: My friend (mostly on Parachute Adams) -- 12; me -- 9 (on
red-and-white daredevils and Rainbow
Trout streamers).
Airplanes Counted: 44.
People: 7.
Saturday, June 24th --
When we woke up in the morning, a small storm has passed near the lake and
clouds were blocking the sun.
We went out fishing right away and after an
hour and a half, we returned to the camp to eat breakfast. During
the day, several people hiked into the lake. They were different groups,
mostly in two's and three's. The last
2 people -- 2 men who also
brought belly boats -- were quite loud. You could hear one of them all
the way from
the other side of the lake. You could hear people
asking among themselves why the man didn't understand that
people went to
the lake to get away from noise. I think that his friend mentioned it to
him, because he was
less noisy after about 30 minutes.
I must have
lost a page of notes, because I didn't write down very much of what we did that
day. I do remember
taking an early afternoon break and playing
some cards with my friend in the tent. Also, during the night, my
air mattress began leaking and it got worse during the trip. Have you
ever slept on the ground without any
padding?
Fish Caught: My friend -- 11; me -- 3 (mostly on Rainbow Trout streamers).
Airplanes Counted: I was having so much fun relaxing that I lost count.
People: 19.
Sunday, June 25th --
I woke up at 4:30, my friend woke up at 5:30, and we hit the lake at 5:45.
I got four hits from fish but didn't
catch any of them.
While fishing, I saw an eagle flying over the glacier. (Do you think that
I might be missing
fish because I'm not paying close enough attention?)
We returned to camp at about 10 o'clock to pack up the
gear and to
give our belly boats time to dry out before packing them up. After eating
and drinking enough
water to prepare for the hike, we left the lake at
12:15. We got back to the car in 2 hours and 25 minutes
(Pretty
fast!). We passed a few people with dogs along the trail. The
conditions were perfect -- Clouds
blocked the sun, there was no rain, and
I thanked my dad and my friend's mom (who had passed away within
the past
year) for the good conditions. We arrived immediately behind 3 guys who
were also hiking back down.
My friend said that he heard one of them
mention how big our packs were. They probably seemed that way
because of the belly boats strapped to the back of them. It was worth
hauling them up to the lake, though,
considering how many more fish we
caught while using them.
While at the car at the trail head, I asked my friend if we had any snacks.
He said that we were prepared. I
responded "We did
some good planning. Now if I could just remember what was the
plan.". Ha! Ha!
Fish Caught: My friend -- 1; me -- 0 (but I had one bite!).
Airplanes Counted: I didn't count them since we left that day.
People: 5.
Prologue
- We took the trip prior to any (significant) trail maintenance being done.
On Saturday when so many
people went to the lake, 5 of the people
were either rangers or their volunteer assistants.
- The mosquitos were somewhat annoying, as usual. And as always,
they would go away whenever a storm
was either happening or about to
happen.
- The snow banks around the lake were melting quickly, as evidenced by the
photographs on the other page.
- "Normal" sunset occurred around 8:30 and we could still easily
see until 9:30. Is it because of the latitude?
- When we would look up at the sky at night, it was a deep, dark blue and
not black. The reason why we
could tell was because we could see
the darker silhouette of the trees.