Backpacking Noble Knob and Lost Lake

I think Lost Lake was meant to stay lost. (It will always be lost among all the other thousands of lakes by the same name) Maybe it's not so bad from an easier direction? We stayed there after a rough 8 mile hike that took us past Noble Knob with a detour to George Lake when we ran out of water. The trail goes up and down along a ridge and the lakes are all at the bottom of the valleys. So we had a lot of elevation gain along the way.
We drove to the Corral Pass campsite on Friday afternoon and car camped for the night. In the morning we drove a few yards to the trail head parking lot and took off with our packs. The views of Mt. Rainier were great along the trail. Panoramic views from the Knob are fabulous (Beljica was better though). We saw three lakes from up there. The closest one had people all over and in it. We decided we didn't want to go there for the night. The next closest lake looked more brown than blue but we didn't see any people on it so we aimed for that one. Between the directions we had and the trail signs, or lack thereof, we ended up on the wrong trail which took us where we didn't want to go. Halfway there we could tell we were headed to the overcrowded lake but we couldn't stop because we were out of water. After discussing our options, we dropped the packs halfway to George Lake so we couldn't change our minds and stay there because we were too tired to keep going. We only took our water bottles, platypus and the filter. There were more people at the lake than we saw from the knob so we pumped water, drank it, pumped some more and left.
By then I was cranky and not looking forward to the 3 miles back up to the ridge and down the other side to the lake we hoped would have fewer people. Along the way C was nice enough to completely distract me from my complaining by asking questions about camera gear. She's so smart.
We found a nice large campsite at the north end of Lost Lake, dropped the packs and went swimming! It had been in the 80's or 90's all day so it really didn't matter how cold the water was. We've never gone swimming in an alpine lake before. But this one wasn't fed by glaciers (this time of year anyway) so it was reasonable.
While setting up the kitchen at our campsite that evening a fearless chipmunk appeared and was very interested in our chocolate. I thought it'd make some interesting photos so I put the whole bar on the ground and backed up to shoot him trying to open the wrapper. It was pretty dark by then so only a few worked.
It was still so hot when we went to bed that we had to pull the rain fly off the tent.
We got up and out really early because we were afraid of hiking up to the ridge in 80 degree heat. It was cloudy enough that we weren't too hot, but I was still sweating fat. And I managed to pull a back muscle lifting C's pack that morning.
The wild blueberries along the trail were delicious. And a cloudy Rainier is pretty photogenic.
It was a tough, but really good trip.



CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE NOBLE KNOB PHOTOS

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Lake Dorothy - Backpacking

C and I got away for the weekend to Lake Dorothy. The weather was perfect, the hike was relatively easy, and the food was delicious. We drove down what has to be the best maintained 9 miles of gravel road I've ever seen to the trail head. 15 minutes into the hike we crossed a photogenic bridge where a few rivers seem to meet. Then we climbed stairs for an hour to get to the lake. We went to the far side of the lake, about 2 miles, to set up our tent. Then I walked around in the freezing water while C read a book on the shore. I think we both fell asleep on the rocks and C claims I snored once, but I don't believe it. After we wore ourselves out relaxing we ate dinner and went to bed.
I was shocked how many people bring inflatable rafts and paddle around on the lake. I was only a little jealous because there are many small islands in the middle of the lake that look like fun.
On the way out we stopped at the bridge near the trail head and C read some more while I took hordes of pictures and went swimming. The rocks are mostly flat and slippery but I couldn't seem to slide very well. I definitely want to go back and shoot those low falls with a tripod sometime.







CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PICTURES FROM OUR LAKE DOROTHY TRIP

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Sol Duc Park Backpacking

The rangers at the Port Angeles station said we should go to Sol Duc Park since our first choice was already full. It turned out pretty well. Except for the mosquitos that ate me anytime we were near our tent. I guess they like the taste of deet?

It took us 4 hours to hike the 7+ miles to get there. I barely made it. We were the last stragglers to arrive so we got stuck with the campsite next to the ranger "station". Maybe that's where the mosquitos came from?

The trail follows the Sol Duc River and crosses a lot of creeks and waterfalls along the way. Some of them were really photogenic.

We spent the next day on the High Divide ridge. When we got to the ridge we turned left and sat in a meadow for an hour or two and waited for the clouds to uncover Mt. Olympus. But they never did. We did see it's Blue Glacier for a minute or two though. We went back down to Heart Lake to refill the water bottles. Then back up to the ridge again and took a right and sat in a meadow for another hour or two. Dramatic views were everywhere. But the clouds kept it from being totally perfect. Oh well.









Click here to see all the pictures from the trip!

This is the first time I've managed to fill a 4G card on a backpacking trip. I think it was the combination of ferry rides, flowers, and mountains. The 30D battery lasts forever or I would have been toast.

Pete Lake Backpacking (retro post)

(retro post = out of chronological order, a.k.a. Jason's catching up)

On Memorial Day weekend C and I went backpacking. But it was too early in the season for off-roading in the corolla. We were headed to Hyas Lake but didn't make it because of all the snow still on the road.
In one spot I found a way to drive around the snow-blocked road only to find an even bigger pile of snow. I eased the car up to the edge of the snow to confirm it was too high and we'd just get stuck. About then some random guy comes running out of the woods where he and all his friends were partying to tell us that they'd never seen a car make it this far and that it only gets worse farther along.
C still wanted to ram the snow pile and not give up on the weekend. I eventually talked her out of it. It took about a half hour though. She doesn't give up easily. She claims she's going to bring a snow shovel next time and dig us a way through if she has to. We agreed to try a few other forest roads we passed on our way in.
It was late in the evening, when we finally found the trailhead to Pete Lake and decided to try it. There was plenty of snow on the trail, but gaiters weren't really necessary. We crossed a whole bunch of streams and rivers along the way. While still a mile short of the lake magic hour arrived. So C and I took advantage of the good lighting and shot a picture of each other without even stopping to take our packs off.
We had to walk to the far side of the lake before we found an available campsite. I think it was the best one.
The next day we got up really late and I walked around the lake to take a few pictures.
For being plan C or D, it turned out pretty well.

8 Mile Lake

To get to 8 Mile Lake we just drove 8 miles past Leavenworth, WA on Icicle Creek Road. But we weren't there yet. It was another 3 miles on the dirt road to the trailhead. After loading up and hiking for 3.5 more miles we were disappointed with a tiny lake and one ugly campsite right in the middle of the trail. Then we realized we'd found "little 8 mile lake." I'd rather call it "fake 8 mile lake" instead. It was still another half mile before we finally dropped our packs and set up the tent at the real 8 Mile Lake.

The hike through the old burned out forest is actually quite nice because bushes have grown over a lot of the dead trees that are laying on the ground.

We saw some interesting flowers, birds, and the chubbiest chipmunks ever. I'm not sure what they eat up there but they've got plenty of it.

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Click here to see the whole gallery

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I got to use my fabulous gorillapod for the blurry water shots. It's so perfect for backpacking! I also learned not to store lenses in my pockets because I nearly lost one to the river. I lost a tripod leg to a river near a place called "Troublesome" a couple years ago and that was really painful.

Shooting with a bright sky and dark shadowy forest is hard on the dynamic range. To get some of the sky and clouds back I underexposed enough to leave some minor details in the sky. In Lightroom I turned the recovery and fill light up pretty high, but the blue sky was still mostly washed out. I found that if I turned up the saturation in the blue channel and turned its luminance down quite a bit it all came back. I end up with bright clouds, a deep blue sky, and enough detail for everything else. Lightroom is cool. It makes web galleries too.

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