Blanca Lake 7/24/09-7/26/09

As the Friday workday came to a close, my friends Nate and Josh joined me on an adventure to Blanca Lake. We made it to the trailhead by 8 p.m., but as that is much to late to begin a hike, we camped at one of the campsites nearby on a river. We said by the fire, roasted hotdogs, toasted s'mores and drank Black Butte Porter until we could do no more. Then, when we realized we should've gotten to sleep long ago, we turned in for the evening.

We woke up the next morning, packed up, drove the car around the corner and parked at the trailhead. By 9:30, we were on the trail. The trail itself wasn't too difficult: four miles long, 2700' up and then 600' down to the lake. We could've done it much quicker than we did, but we took three hours due to the intense heat, humidity, and bugs. We arrived at the lake around 12:30.

Blanca Lake is a popular destination for both dayhikers and backpackers alike, and is only accessible for a short window of time during the months of July and August. Before that, the lake is frozen and there's snow everywhere. After, the weather turns vicious. Therefore, everyone tries to see the place during those two months. It wasn't crowded, but we saw more people than I have in every other trip I've taken this year.

As we traversed the banks of Blanca Lake, we were forced to cross the river spewing out of it and down the mountains. We took off our boots and began to make our way across. It was only a foot or so deep, but it was cold and fast, and bare feet on slick rocks and logs are not can't deal with that very well. I made a wrong step and ended up in the drink. Most of my stuff was fine, but my camera was in my pocket and got wet. (As such, I was unable to take any more pictures that day as the camera dried out.)

We walked the banks of Blanca Lake until we found a spot we deemed fit. After lunch and some fishing, we did some exploring. We made our way to the far end of the lake, beneath Columbia Glacier. We wanted to see the waterfall made by the glacier runoff, and we stupidly chose to dangerously climb the rocks that were perched over the tumultuous waters of the river below. It was the kind of thing where it doesn't look so bad going up, but you'd never go down that way. Eventually, we reached large areas of smooth rock that we were able to walk over to get to the top of the waterfall. From there, we hiked up to the glacier. We spent some time taking in the vastness of the glacier and the mountains that cradled it, and then started back down. This time, we went down a large snowy patch on a hillside west of the waterfall, and were able to slide down as if we were skiing.

That night we did more of the same. We ate, fished, and sat around the campfire until the wee hours. The next day, we took our time in the morning. After we had had lunch, we started to hike out around 1. We crossed the river without anyone falling in and were able to hike back up the hillside and down to the car by 3:30. I had been dreaming of a cold Pepsi the whole way down, and my wish was fulfilled at the Skykomish gas station.

Star Lake 7/18/09-7/20/09

Last Saturday, the Bacik family (sans our mother) headed northeastward up the North Cascades Highway to Twisp, WA. There, we dropped off my two younger sisters with my aunt, and my dad, Eli, Leighton and myself headed outside of Twisp to the Lake Chelan Sawtooth Wilderness. We drove many miles deep into the forest to our trailhead. There, we geared up and set out by 4. It was later than we would have liked, but the weather was pleasant so there were no complaints.

We were hiking to Star Lake; a small body of water in the shadow of Star Peak. It was at roughly 7200', and we were beginning at 4000'. The hike to the pass between Star Peak and Courtney Peak was around seven miles up to 7400'. Not difficult, but enough of a challenge to make it worthwhile.

The first few miles of our trip was through a rather dry forest. There were many tall, thin trees that swayed and creaked in the wind. They towered above us and shook about, causing us to wonder if a tree falls on a hiker in the middle of the forest, does Leighton stop making fun of us long enough to lift the tree off our crushed body?

Since we had such a late start, we were only able to make it a few miles in. Though we probably could have made it to our final destination before dark, we felt there was no need to push it. So, at 6, we stopped at a campsite along the way. We set up camp, made a fire, and ate a delicious dinner of sweet and sour pork and chili mac with beef (Mountain House, not homemade).

That night, I had trouble sleeping. There were beasties crawling about outside my tent for many hours, keeping me awake. Everytime I got up to shine my light on them, they disappeared into blackness. Bastards!

The next day we woke up early, had breakfast, packed up our gear, and set out on the trail again. We made our way through the forest to the switchbacks to lead up to the pass. We enjoyed how well-kept the trail was. There were no blowdowns and the stream crossings were mere creeks. The foliage was lush, the scenery was splendid, and I even saw a marmot. The only downside were the mosquitos, which were feirce.

We finally got a look at Star Peak, and we knew we were close. The pass wasn't that much farther. As I approached the pass, I wondered what was on the other side. As I reached its' crest, I was treated to a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains.

We headed down the slope towards the lake. Unfortunately, the one decent campsite on the lake was taken, so we were forced to look elsewhere. Across a meadow of wildflowers and babbling brooks, we found a spot with a fire circle and a place to put our tents. We got ourselves situated, had lunch, and spent the rest of the day relaxing. We later went up to the lake and met the people who were staying there. Kevin and Gloria (or Ken and Rita as Eli and Leighton wouldn't stop referring to them as) came on horseback with good food and all the luxuries of camping. We envied them.

As the sun began to fade, we headed back to our camp. We had dinner, spent a little more time by the fire, and then called it an evening. Once again, I was kept awake by savage creatures, but this time I saw them, and found they were just a couple deer hanging around my tent.

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The next morning, we packed up and headed back down. The hike down took under four hours. We headed back to Twisp, picked up the girls, and headed home. All in all, a successful trip.

Silver Lake 6/28/09-6/30/09

(Unfortunately, I forgot my camera for this trip, so it will act more as a trip report than an entertaining blog post. My bad!)

Last Sunday morning, my cousin Casey and myself headed up to the Mountain Loop Highway to Monte Cristo. We were planning to make our way up to Twin Lakes for three days of fun in the sun. We arrived at the Monte Cristo trailhead around 1 p.m., geared up and set out.

The first part of the trail was ridiculously easy, and is a great family dayhike. Basically, it's a road. The reason you can't drive it is because it's washed-out in many places, but there are detour paths to overcome these obstacles. Altogether, it's a relatively flat road along a river with great views. After four miles of hiking, you hit the ghost town of Monte Cristo, which is a neat site in itself with all the 19th-century mining relics.

From there, something resembling a hike began. We followed the Silver Lake trailhead up switchbacks for another two miles to Poodle Dog Pass. The trail was in immaculate condition with the exception of a blowdown or two and a couple patches of snow. When we did reach Silver Lake, we were so smitten by the view of it, that we decided to stop there instead of continuing to our final destination of Twin Lakes (save that for another day). There was deep snow at the pass and around the lake, but it was hard-packed and made everything absolutely beautiful. We wandered across a meadow to the lake, and found the perfect spot. We were up on the lip of the bowl that surrounded the lake, and had all of Silver Lake and the mountains that backed it to one side. To the other side of our site, there was a steep hill down into a valley full of trees where the stream from Silver Lake poured into. This scenic campsite made me even more furious I forgot my camera.

We spent that night and the following day just hanging at the site and the surrounding area. We built a fire (though it's not allowed) and enjoyed the views. The weather was great, though the snow did make exploring not as easy as it might otherwise have been. The bugs were feirce in the late afternoon, but otherwise a non-issue. We were upset that we also forgot a deck of cards, so Casey tried to fashion one out of notebook paper, but that proved to be a dismal failure. The time spent lounging in the sun and hanging around the fire was pleasant enough, and we both found the experience fulfilling.

The hike down the following day was easy enough, and we were in Omega Pizza & Pasta in Granite Falls, gorging ourselves, by 1 p.m.

All in all, we had a great time, and I hope to get back up there to see Twin Lakes (and take my damn camera next time!).