he has a face covered in stuble.......EWWWWW and OUCH! I'm SO glad Aaron is back.....I just feel better when he's here with me and the kids. It sounds like he had a great time. I'm turning the post over to him and he can tell you about it.......
The elevation and distances included below were recorded with my GPS unit.
Day 1: Met at 6:00 a.m and drove to Redfish, dropped off my car at the parking lot and drove over to Yellow Belly (~6800 ft. elevation) lake to start our hike. We hiked about 6.5 miles (mostly uphill) to Toxaway Lake (~8300ft. elevation) and camped there the 1st night. Most of us jumped into the lake, which was still being fed by the snowpack on the surrounding mountains. Needless to say, we didn't stay in the water long.
1st pic is of Toxaway Lake in the morning. I didn't take a camera, so all these pictures are ones I found with Google and stole off the internet.
Day 2: We got up, broke camp, and got off to what the boys considered an early start. I think we started hiking at about 10:30. This was supposed to be our hardest day (more on that later), with the day's hike starting with an approx. 1000 ft. gain in the 1st mile. 2nd pic is from the summit of this climb (~9300 ft. elevation) looking East toward the White Clouds. Yellow Belly Lake, where we started the 1st day, is the lake further away in the picture. From this summit we dropped down almost as much as we climbed, then had another smalle
r climb up to Hidden Lake (~8500 ft. elevation), our destination for the 2nd night. Day two was again about 6.5 miles, but a much tougher 6.5 miles than day one. At Hidden Lake there was swimming again, but I only got in up to my knees this time and washed off the dust and sweat from the days hike. It was windy there, and I was cold before I ever got in the water so I wimped out on jumping in, but some of the boys and the Young Men's President swam out to a small island a short distance out. 3rd pic is hidden lake from the hike to the summit of day 3's hike. The trail runs along the side of the lake to the right of the picture.
Day 3: We left Hidden Lake and started our planned hike of about 4.5 miles to the Cramer Lakes. This was supposed to be our short day, with a climb of about 1000 ft. out of Hidden Lake then over a pass (~9500 ft. elevation) and down to the Cramer Lakes. Pic 4 is looking down toward Cramer Lakes from the pass. We were to stay at Cramer Lakes, then on day 4 hike out about 6 miles, all downhill, to Redfish Lake (~6600 ft. elevation). After some debate, the boys decided to make the hike to Redfish on day 3 instead and enjoy a campfire at the campground there (Fires are not allowed in the Sawtooth Wilderness area, and we kept the rules and had no fires).
The Cramer Lake was one of my favorite spots on the trip. Upper Cramer Lake flows into Lower Cramer Lake by way of a waterfall over a cliff. Some of us hiked over to the cliffs next to the falls to cliff jump into the lake (twice). It was cold, but a lot of fun. I knew that if I didn't do it I would regret it when I got home. The 6 miles or so down to Redfish was not a bad hike, but with about 11 miles total for the day we were all tired when we got there. Pics 5 & 6 are of the water fall between Upper and Lower Cramer Lakes. We jumped from about halfway up the cliffs on the left of the falls.
Pic 7 is in the canyon on the hike on the way down to Redfish, a couple of miles from the lake.
Day 4: Since we did the extra hike on day 3, we just got up, broke camp, and caught the shuttle boat to the Redfish Lake lodge. We had planned to go out to eat, but we told the boys that would depend on them breakng camp in time to catch the 1st scheduled shuttle at 9:00. We woke them up at 7:00, and they were ready to go by 8:00. This was about 2 hours faster than they were about to get ready to go on the other 2 mornings, amazing what the right motivation will do. We ended up getting pizza at a place in Stanley called 'Sawtooth Luce's' (I have no idea how it is supposed to be pronounced, but the pizza was good) and coming home.
The last pic is a screenshot of the elevation profile and distance as recorded by the GPS. It is kind of hard to see, but the total distance ended up being 23.88 miles.
1st pic is of Toxaway Lake in the morning. I didn't take a camera, so all these pictures are ones I found with Google and stole off the internet.
Day 2: We got up, broke camp, and got off to what the boys considered an early start. I think we started hiking at about 10:30. This was supposed to be our hardest day (more on that later), with the day's hike starting with an approx. 1000 ft. gain in the 1st mile. 2nd pic is from the summit of this climb (~9300 ft. elevation) looking East toward the White Clouds. Yellow Belly Lake, where we started the 1st day, is the lake further away in the picture. From this summit we dropped down almost as much as we climbed, then had another smalle
r climb up to Hidden Lake (~8500 ft. elevation), our destination for the 2nd night. Day two was again about 6.5 miles, but a much tougher 6.5 miles than day one. At Hidden Lake there was swimming again, but I only got in up to my knees this time and washed off the dust and sweat from the days hike. It was windy there, and I was cold before I ever got in the water so I wimped out on jumping in, but some of the boys and the Young Men's President swam out to a small island a short distance out. 3rd pic is hidden lake from the hike to the summit of day 3's hike. The trail runs along the side of the lake to the right of the picture.Day 3: We left Hidden Lake and started our planned hike of about 4.5 miles to the Cramer Lakes. This was supposed to be our short day, with a climb of about 1000 ft. out of Hidden Lake then over a pass (~9500 ft. elevation) and down to the Cramer Lakes. Pic 4 is looking down toward Cramer Lakes from the pass. We were to stay at Cramer Lakes, then on day 4 hike out about 6 miles, all downhill, to Redfish Lake (~6600 ft. elevation). After some debate, the boys decided to make the hike to Redfish on day 3 instead and enjoy a campfire at the campground there (Fires are not allowed in the Sawtooth Wilderness area, and we kept the rules and had no fires).
The Cramer Lake was one of my favorite spots on the trip. Upper Cramer Lake flows into Lower Cramer Lake by way of a waterfall over a cliff. Some of us hiked over to the cliffs next to the falls to cliff jump into the lake (twice). It was cold, but a lot of fun. I knew that if I didn't do it I would regret it when I got home. The 6 miles or so down to Redfish was not a bad hike, but with about 11 miles total for the day we were all tired when we got there. Pics 5 & 6 are of the water fall between Upper and Lower Cramer Lakes. We jumped from about halfway up the cliffs on the left of the falls.
Pic 7 is in the canyon on the hike on the way down to Redfish, a couple of miles from the lake.
Day 4: Since we did the extra hike on day 3, we just got up, broke camp, and caught the shuttle boat to the Redfish Lake lodge. We had planned to go out to eat, but we told the boys that would depend on them breakng camp in time to catch the 1st scheduled shuttle at 9:00. We woke them up at 7:00, and they were ready to go by 8:00. This was about 2 hours faster than they were about to get ready to go on the other 2 mornings, amazing what the right motivation will do. We ended up getting pizza at a place in Stanley called 'Sawtooth Luce's' (I have no idea how it is supposed to be pronounced, but the pizza was good) and coming home.
The last pic is a screenshot of the elevation profile and distance as recorded by the GPS. It is kind of hard to see, but the total distance ended up being 23.88 miles.
3 comments:
WOW! That is an awesome trip! Chuck and I have been to Cramer Lakes and think they are some of the most beautiful we have ever seen.That water fall looked like something you'd see in Hawaii when we saw it. We were on a backpacking trip to the Baron Lakes area. It sounds like the experience was grand! Glad it all went well and that you're back home safely.
Sounds like you had a terrific time. It looks beautiful. It also sounds hard, but rewarding. I think the cliff jumping looked awesome.
HOly!!That is one crazy hared couple of days. It looks like that waterfall at the high lakes was super cool, but I'd hate to go through all that to get there.
Was it still as fun as anticipated??
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