I have held over ten addresses over the past ten years, but this weekend it occurred to me that I have not been on a single backpacking trip since I went on a six-day trek through Idaho after graduating high school. This past week, I attempted to change that with an easy hike followed by a day of day-hiking.
Stephen and I arrived near Coal Lake with the intention of camping near Pass Lake, then bushwhacking around the ridge to get to North Lake. We started our off-trail adventures early with miserably dense vegetation which saw the destruction of my 12-year old boots.
After returning to the road, we found the trail and went to Pass Lake. We found one lonely campground which was not very scenic, decided we had our fill of stomping through dense vegetation and that we would take the trail to North Lake.
The trail to North Lake provided the perfect challenge, right up until we started hitting the snow fields. I had never tried to hike up snow before (or with a full pack), and I didn’t have the proper equipment, but I eventually gathered the courage to get up to the ridge.
The snow fields were steeper and more deleterious on the other side of the ridge, so I convinced Stephen to head back towards some of the earlier campgrounds. As you can see, Stephen had no trouble with navigating the difficult terrain.
After reaching the ridge (again), we started heading down the hill and kept a vigilant eye out for camping spots. As we hit the final clearing before the steep decent down to the Independence Lake (which would likely be full), we found a couple flat spots on snow, in July! The snow was refreshing and invigorating, and after making camp, we went up to the ridge to check out the sunset over the seemingly endless backcountry.
In the morning, we hiked back down to camp and drove to Seattle. What a place where you can have a Friday night on the town, camp in the middle of the wilderness on Saturday, and still be back in time on Sunday to go for a run along the beach!