Wenatchee National Forest, WA- As usual, the much anticipated hike with my brothers this year was not a disappointment. We had our usual nice weather, dusty trails, and cold dips in mountain glacier lakes. The only major difference was the size of the group. With Andrew still on his mission this year we of course, missed him again. Also missing from this years hike was Vaughn. He was recently called as the Young Men’s president in his ward and is having difficulty finding additional days to take off for the hike. So although we missed them both dearly, the experience was still a blast.
Logan and I took off from Spokane on Wednesday afternoon and headed over to Yakima to Birch’s house. We got there in time to have a fantastic dinner with his family. Brent arrived shortly after we did. We played some Frisbee, cleaned up dinner and then headed out to see a movie together. The movie was terrible, but it was fun to hang together anyway. I think the ride back to Birch’s after the movie was more entertaining than the movie itself.
The next morning after breakfast we piled our stuff into the cars and headed off. We drove past Cle Elum and up into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area which borders the Southern end of the Wenatchee National Forest. Since our starting point and out ending point were different we dropped Brent’s car off at the end and then drove to the starting trail head.
Giddy to get started we strapped on our packs, took our customary “here we go” picture at the trail head and off we went. The trail was well marked and maintained. We hiked for an hour before our first break. It was quite warm and sunny. The second leg of the trail was steep with switchbacks going all the way up. With about a half mile left to go until we reached the saddle I started to feel really lousy. I felt drained of energy and a little nauseous. I was relieved to be done with the switchbacks when we finally arrived.
There was a small peak (Earl Peak) adjacent to where we were resting and after a few minutes of rehidrating and eating we decided it would be cool to hike to the top of it. So we left our packs and up we went. it was fairly steep and rocky terrain but not too difficult to manage considering we did not have our packs on.
The view from the top was awesome as expected. We took some pictures and started planning our next move. From the top where we were, we could see the trail in the far distance. In the same direction as the trail was a small lake with a meadow next to it. There was not a trail leading up to it but it seemed like it would be a good place to camp for the night with the opportunity to bathe in the small lake/pond. The idea was sound, but the execution turned out to be a little more tricky.
We hiked back down Earl Peak back to our packs and decided we would just hike along the side of the slope until we came to the next saddle, then we would cross over the ridge and drop right into the meadow with the pond waiting for us on the other side. Again, a great plan, but hiking along a fairly steep ridge with 40-pound packs on with no trail is no easy task. To add to it, the ridge dropped down very little from the top of the peak. So basically, we hiked Earl Peak twice, the second time with our packs on. I really had a hard time making it up as well. I continued to feel little nausious and barely made it to the top of the ridge. going down the other side was no picnic either. It was very steep and rocky, it made for tricky stepping.
It felt great to get to the meadow finally, and a very nice meadow it was. We all put on our swim trunks and headed over to the pond to take a little dip and wash off the dust and sweat. Our little pond turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment. It was only about two feet deep and the bottom was very deep and soft mud. It made bathing a little tricky. The rest of the evening I was pretty out of commission. I continued to feel lousy and fell asleep pretty early.
The next morning I felt quite a bit better. After breakfast we threw the frisbee around. A few years ago we had a game of frisbee golf and Brent and Birch beat Logan and I. So we challenged them to a rematch, and beat them handily. It was pretty funny making up the course one hole at a time, hit that rock, around that tree, then into the tent. It was a fun way to spend the morning.
After packing up we grabbed our hymn books and sang a few songs. It is really fun to sing with my brothers, and I must say, we sound pretty darn good most of the time. Since we could see where the trail continued on in the distance we needed to hike along the ridge until we got there. Although it was not nearly as bad as the day before (again, being without a trail), scrambling across rocks, etc. is a tiring task with heavy packs on. We did finally make it to the trail however.
The next leg of the trail took us down over 2,000 vertical feet down to Ingalls Creek. It would not have been too bad if we would have had a decent trail to follow. It seemed the whole time I would lose the trail for a bit and then somehow I would end up on it again. There was a whole lot of under-growth which made the trial impossible to decipher at times. Clearly the trail was no longer a main route for hikers. Along the trail were many branches and thorn bushes strung across the trial. By the time we reached the creek our shins were pretty beat up and we were really dusty and sweaty.
As soon as we got to the creek we all jumped in the water, it was a very cold little creek, nevertheless it was really refreshing. After our swim we had lunch and then hit the trail. We had about five miles to go until we made it to where we wanted to camp. It was after six pm when we finally arrived. We were all ready to drop our packs for the night. We camped in a designated camping area, it had a fire pit and some makeshift benches, it was nice to have a fire, we rarely have them on our hikes, the benches were a nice touch as well.
The next morning we did not dilly dally, we wanted to hit the trail fairly early so we could make it up to Lake Ingalls with enough time to enjoy it. From where we were camped it was about 2,000 vertical feet and a few miles. We took off and a pretty good pace and arrived after about an hour at a really cool meadow. We stopped and took some group pictures which turned out pretty cool. From there we had two choices. We could either follow the trail which lead up some switchbacks to the top of the ridge, then ran over to the river. Although the route was a little more roundabout, there was a trail (according to the map anyway). The other option was to forget the trail and climb the rocks up to the lake, using a more direct route. Considering what we had gone through the day before we opted for the nice trail option.
The trail was awful. It followed along the ridge and had some really precarious spots. Nevertheless we finally arrived at the lake. It is a very beautiful lake, it sits at about 6,400 feet and rests in the shadow of Mount Stuart. The water is crystal clear and steep rock cliffs surround more than half the lake. It was truly a sight to behold. This day was not nearly as warm as Thursday and Friday had been, and while we were hot from hiking the thought of jumping in the lake was not too appealing to us all.
But we had to do it anyway…and the picture turned out pretty good. It was really cold, as soon as we all got out we put on out warm clothes and made hot lunches. We took the opportunity to sing some songs, the acoustics around the lake were pretty cool, there were a few passers by who later on commented about how good we sounded. After a long lunch break it was time to break and begin the descent back to the cars.
The trail which led us out was on the opposite side of the lake from where we came in. We assumed the trail which brought us here continued around the lake to the other side where we would exit. So we strapped on our packs and off we went. Getting to the other side proved to be quite a challenge. We had to climb some rocks which we all assumed we would be able to climb down on the other side, but this was not the case. On the opposite side of the rocks were cliffs in most places. We spent several minutes looking around a way to get down. At the bottom of the cliff we could see the trail we needed to get to but we just had no way of getting down.
Birch and I finally found a little chute in the rocks which we were able to shimmy down. Logan and Brent in the mean time and given up the search and began hiking around the lake the other way. We did finally make it around the lake. The hike out was uneventful, we went pretty quickly and the sight of the car was very welcoming. Our feet to an unusual beating on this hike because of the large amount of hiking on rugged terrain as opposed to nice trails.
On our way home we stopped at this little burger place and got these great cheeseburger subs. It’s amazing how a good ol fashion burger and shake can make you feel after eating trail food for three days.
It was another fantastic adventure with some my absolute favorite people. I adore my brothers and relish the opportunity to spend time with them. They are great fathers, and examples to me. Only one more year until next years hike.