It was bad. I had to help him back up onto the trail (luckily he had caught himself with his hands just below the trail). Something terrible had happened to his ankle. All we knew was that he had a lot of pain and he couldn't put any pressure on his right side. I took all the pack weight that I could fit in my bag - this left peter with our sleeping bags as they were too big to fit with everything else. We ventured forward as little as possible, I ran up ahead to find us a campsite. We had made it less than 8 miles since the trail was poor enough to warrant slow progress.
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| I managed to find Peter a pretty nice walking stick. Too bad he's so tall or it would have been perfect. |
We spent the rest of the night trying to elevate it and were hopeful that it might feel better in the morning. This was also the first time I've nearly encountered a rattle snake - when trying to find us water after setting up camp. I heard it and my nerves were already on full-tilt so I was very happy to be able to respond in a calm manner and go elsewhere. We decided to stay one more night to give Peter's ankle time to rest (which we wouldn't do if this happened again - best to get home asap).
It took us the entire day to walk back to the car. And then I drove the full 6 hours back home. I think we arrived well after dark and I promptly passed out. It took Peter's ankle a few months to recover which was a major bummer because this happened in very early summer.
On June 6, 2016 we decided to go back. This time to a different trailhead, but it was our first time back near Shasta for backpacking. We started at a romantical sounding trailhead: Lover's Camp Campground (which is technically a part of the Marble Mountain Wilderness). Our drive started late and we arrived after 1 am to an unexpectedly crowded parking lot. Pitching our tent in the spare spot next to the car it was relatively difficult to fall asleep due to being anxious for the morning (and relatively noisy neighbors).
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| Camping next to our trusty Ford Focus. Travelling in luxury! |
In the morning we quickly readied ourselves with our newly reduced weight (by 50%!!) sleeping bags (we're on a quest at the moment to reduce our pack weights which is fun).
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| Pee on the trees attracts deer (careful if you want to sleep, they are loud!). |
As always, we expected something very different than we got on our trip. The one thing we were very happy about was the amount of solitude. It was surprisingly quiet. We had a nice snack atop a ridge that we had to climb (and subsequently climb down immediately) to arrive at Little Elk Lake.
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| Little Elk 'Lake' which was NOT for swimming :(. |
We took a spectacular 3 hour nap here and ate some tasty food before heading to the main destination: Deep Lake.
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| Approaching Deep Lake basin. Incredibly dense greenery abound. |
We walked down to the lake thinking we had it to ourselves but saw some campfire smoke and headed back to some nice trees for camping and sat out in a meadow for dinner and sunset.
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| Sunset near Deep Lake. Dinner was wonderful, as always. |
As the sun began to set on the mountains surrounding the lake, we took a little walk down to the water.
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| Walking down to Deep Lake with a down blanket we tried out. |
We were reminded of something we ALWAYS forget: the mosquitoes come out as soon as the sun sets. And they are ruthless. We practically ran back to the tent to brush teeth (I almost skipped...).
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| Twilight from the tent. I love our tent. The body is 90% mesh and it is the best tent I've ever had. |
After what turned out to be another rough night of sleep (we were on more of an angle than we realized and ended up sliding down a bit in the night - very unsettling), we walked back down to the lake to wash our faces. Peter decided to go for a swim and I of course had to join him.
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| Admiring the cliffs surrounding Deep Lake. |
As often happens, when we slowed down and enjoyed this spot, we decided to stay one more night. There were some alpine lakes very much off trail above Deep Lake which we knew would be a wonderful outing. After moving our tent over to the coveted near-lake spot, we took off for the ABC lakes.
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| Outlet from Aspen Lake flowing into a mesmerizing waterfall. |
It ended up being a much tougher climb than we expected and a much more beautiful reward awaited us. The lakes were breathtaking and we miraculously had them entirely to ourselves. The water was crystal clear (and freezing cold, thanks to the snowmelt) and felt so good for our afternoon dip.
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| Waters of Aspen Lake. |
We ended up spending a lot of time at Aspen Lake, staring off at the cliffs and enjoying the water. It was really hot up there, so we tried to get as much shelter from the sun as we could. We succeeded with no sunburns so I call that a win.
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| Chinquapin Lake. |
We explored around a bit - not much in the way of trails up in the lake basin. Lots of rocks and snow. One side just kept going up, the other side was a sheer drop down to Deep Lake (which I was dreading climbing back down to). Each lake warranted a short stop and rest to admire the scenery and rest (we were up above 8000 feet so just walking around could be tiring).
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| Dogwood Lake. Highest of the ABCs. |
After resting at Dogwood Lake for a bit we explored up and off to the left to see if we could scramble down to the trail beneath Calf Lake on the other side of the ridge for an easier walk back to camp.
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| View from saddle. Mt. Shasta in the distance. |
Thankfully, we DID NOT try the alternate route back. It would have been a 9 mile detour (for some reason we thought it would add only 1 mile). After having some water we headed back for the descent to camp - hoping to make it down before the sun set.
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| One more view of Dogwood Lake on our way back. |
We visited the falls beneath Aspen Lake for a final time. It was a favorite spot.
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| Aspen Lake outlet falls. |
For our final sit in the sun, we took a few minutes at Aspen Lake. Somehow we managed to be in the ABC basin for over 4 hours.
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| Sunshine at Aspen Lake. |
We reluctantly started the descent. I knew it was going to be difficult - very steep, no trail, and extremely slippery/loose rocks and dirt. Plus, those darned mosquitoes came back which made it hard to focus on moving.
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| Deep Lake in the distance. Our tent is near that snow pile... ~1000 feet below. |
The next hour was incredibly beautiful, despite the terrain and bugs. My heart was racing in some spots, I have an intense fear of falling while walking on steep/slippery slopes.
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| About half way down. Note my head-net (best purchase ever). |
Peter is so patient - even though I turn into an emotional hobag. I am not nice to him during these descents and I always feel badly once we finally make it down. I can't help it, my body takes over and my response to fear is to freak out (sorry babe).
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| Glowing wildflowers, nearly back to camp. |
We finally made it and had some well earned dinner with a nice fire (which kept those little mosquitoes at bay). Since this is bear country, we hung our food - always a fun exercise getting the bag at least 10 feet off the ground.
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| Camp at Deep Lake. |
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| Hanging food at Deep Lake. |
Peter was very excited about the next day - we were heading into a place called 'second valley' which held promises of lush meadows filled with wildflowers. The morning was incredible, quiet hiking as always.
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| Muse Meadow. |
Upon arrival in second valley we saw the promised meadows and greenery, complete with a nice snowy boulder peak in the distance. What we didn't expect was the trail conditions... There wasn't really a trail to speak of. The entire meadow was actually a giant bog filled with marshy plants and lots of water. Luckily the bugs were generally at bay, despite perfect breeding grounds.
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| Entering second valley. |
These conditions made our progress quite slow, trying to keep our feet dry, and wondering if we should continue into the valley and cross at the saddle we could see at the end, or if we should backtrack to the main trail and come around the bottom of the ridge.
We decided to press on, excited at the idea of what might lie before us at the end of the valley. It turned out that we were surprised - the trail was even more nonexistent/covered in massive snow fields. We found a user trail and started up toward the saddle (at this point we were wary of user trails - many of them criss-cross this wilderness and terminate after a few hundred feet). Well, this user trail actually climbed all the way to the summit of Boulder Peak on some VERY steep terrain. It took us over 3 hours to go less than 2 miles.
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| Saddle beneath Boulder Peak. So much snow. |
It was mid-day at this point and we were eager to find a shady place to stop and have some lunch. Our water stores were low, but the GPS promised some creek crossings. We cooked up a mountain house and prepared for our descent - we still had about 10 miles to cover and had burned through a good part of the day with the unexpected climb.
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| Descending from Boulder Peak. |
We spent the afternoon walking through trail-less meadows and bogs. Occassionally we'd find remnants of an old trail, or cairns marking the 'way'. Most of these were false leads and the GPS was no real use. We just tried to keep in the right direction, staying away from any cliff edges.
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| Trail sign in Big Meadows - supposedly a four way split. Can you spot a trail anywhere? |
Every corner we turned was a new, more expansive, spectacular meadow. Buck Meadows was my favorite. It went on for miles.
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| Buck Meadows. |
The meadows were so large and expansive that it was quite difficult to make our way. We tried to follow the GPS but there has been so much explosive growth since the maps were updated that large groves of trees crowded around the 'trail' and we had to make our own way... it was so overgrown that I wonder if there's a time of year this isn't the case.
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| Finally making it up out of the endless meadows. It was very steep and slippery through these snow fields. |
After a very long day, we made it to Summit Lakes to camp. This was the first time we saw any people on the trail after leaving the first morning from the trailhead. The lake was full of people, but luckily we got there late enough to not really have to interact with any of them.
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| Camp at Summit Lake. I'm still bundled up in the blankets for a cold morning. |
The sunrise woke us and it was incredible. Beautiful red/orange light on the surrounding cliffs.
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| Sunrise reflecting on Summit Lake. |
Our final day left us with 12 miles. We were a bit weary and definitely wondering about the state of the trails ahead. We knew at some point we'd hit the PCT which was exciting - I was glad knowing that at least part of our day was on a well maintained trail.
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| On the PCT, overlooking awesome meadows and towering trees. |
We added a handful of miles in order to visit famous Sky High Lakes. They looked pretty cool from the trail, but turned out to have very green (warm) water. Nothing like we'd come to enjoy at the higher, less popular lakes. We actually hoped to take a dip as it was blindingly hot. But, the water was yucky enough that we just took a very long siesta instead.
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| Sky High Lakes & 'Frying Pan' lake (actually shaped like a frying pan) visible on the left. |
For the second half of our day, and the final leg of the trip, we hiked through some of the Marble Valley which was pretty cool. It was like someone came out and poured the marble down the slopes. One day we might go back to visit the Marble Valley proper, as the forest we went through was just on the edge.
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| Marble Staircase. |
We spent the final 3 - 4 miles drunkenly making our way back to the trailhead. The last part of the trip is always the hardest - this time especially. The miles felt very long and the heat quite intense.
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| Our first and last trail split. Lying on the ground, indicative of the trail maintenance for our trip. |
I was surprised at how much of the trail we had entirely to ourselves. It was beautiful - alpine lakes are truly special gems tucked away in granite basins. We already have plans to revisit this wilderness, but who knows when that'll happen. There are so many incredible places to explore and I can't wait for our next adventure.
