We had another glorious weekend spending time in the out-of-doors! Friday evening my adorable sister was in town and we spent the evening together chatting, catching up and spending time together. Way too early on Saturday morning my alarm went off and I dragged myself out of bed to get ready to leave for our 2 day backpacking trip up to Josephine Lake in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area. The weather was gorgeous and we hit the trail by about 12 noon. We started off at a pretty good clip, leaving the upper parking lot of Steven's Pass ski area. and then settled into a nice little pace. There were a lot of people out picking berries and the bushes were loaded with wild blueberries and huckleberries. We made great time after about 2 hours of hiking we reached Lake Susan-Jane (a smaller lake right below Josephine Lake) and stopped for lunch. After lunch it was a near vertical hike up to where the Pacific Crest Trail splits a
nd we then headed down the Icicle Creek Trail and then a near vertical drop down to Josephine Lake where we picked a lovely little campsite (it wasn't crowded at the lake so we got a great spot), set up camp, rinsed off in the freezing cold lake, ate dinner (yummy rice dish compliments of Lindsay) and then crawled into our sleeping bags. We were visited at our campsite by this older gentleman, Mark, who told us about how he was retired and spent the summer hiking all over the Cascades. Nick and I did have a slight case of altitude sickness the first night in camp which made sleeping challenging; however, sleeping was made all the more complicated by Jack. We have a 2 person tent and there is no room in there for a 65 pound Goldendoodle who's all legs; so Jack was staked under our rainfly. I was just starting to fall asleep when the tent pulled really tight to one side and Nick sits up and says, "Did Jack just leave?!?". I unzipped the door pro
mptly and sure enough, Jack had gotten tired of being under the rainfly and decided to do some wandering. We called him back over (thank God he came without me having to crawl out of the tent!), I pushed the tent stake through his leash, shoved it into the ground and we commanded him to stay under the fly or die. He complied, but all night long all I heard was Jack eating pine needles, dirt, sticks and so much more; oh yeah, and constantly figuring out how to get out from under the rainfly which kept pulling the tent tight and making me think he was leaving again. Needless to say, the other end of the leash was placed through the tent door and I held it all night long. Good times...
nd we then headed down the Icicle Creek Trail and then a near vertical drop down to Josephine Lake where we picked a lovely little campsite (it wasn't crowded at the lake so we got a great spot), set up camp, rinsed off in the freezing cold lake, ate dinner (yummy rice dish compliments of Lindsay) and then crawled into our sleeping bags. We were visited at our campsite by this older gentleman, Mark, who told us about how he was retired and spent the summer hiking all over the Cascades. Nick and I did have a slight case of altitude sickness the first night in camp which made sleeping challenging; however, sleeping was made all the more complicated by Jack. We have a 2 person tent and there is no room in there for a 65 pound Goldendoodle who's all legs; so Jack was staked under our rainfly. I was just starting to fall asleep when the tent pulled really tight to one side and Nick sits up and says, "Did Jack just leave?!?". I unzipped the door pro
mptly and sure enough, Jack had gotten tired of being under the rainfly and decided to do some wandering. We called him back over (thank God he came without me having to crawl out of the tent!), I pushed the tent stake through his leash, shoved it into the ground and we commanded him to stay under the fly or die. He complied, but all night long all I heard was Jack eating pine needles, dirt, sticks and so much more; oh yeah, and constantly figuring out how to get out from under the rainfly which kept pulling the tent tight and making me think he was leaving again. Needless to say, the other end of the leash was placed through the tent door and I held it all night long. Good times...We did manage to sleep in a bit the next morning before getting up, tearing down our campsite and fixing a hearty breakfast of oatmeal, raisins, brown sugar, wild blueberries and huckleberries. After loading everything up, bidding farewell to Mark and another camper and using the delightful wooden outdoor toilet; we started the 0.25-0.5 vertical hike out from the lake. For some reason the hike seemed shorter going out, but felt like it took us longer. We did stop to pick a bunch of blueberries and huckleberries along the way and ate lunch near a lovely lit
tle stream. We reached the Steven's Pass parking lot at about 5 or 6 in the evening (I don't know the actual time because my Garmin died 1/2 way out on the way back) and it felt so good to ditch our packs! We never got to weight them so officially we don't know what they weighed but we're guessing between 45-75 pounds for each of us (Nick's & T/L's packs were the heaviest). After exhausted goodbyes we split ways and rushed home to hot water and showers! Nick and I went and picked up burgers, fries and onion rings at Blazing Onion - our favorite local burger joint - and then fell into bed by 9:30 p.m.
tle stream. We reached the Steven's Pass parking lot at about 5 or 6 in the evening (I don't know the actual time because my Garmin died 1/2 way out on the way back) and it felt so good to ditch our packs! We never got to weight them so officially we don't know what they weighed but we're guessing between 45-75 pounds for each of us (Nick's & T/L's packs were the heaviest). After exhausted goodbyes we split ways and rushed home to hot water and showers! Nick and I went and picked up burgers, fries and onion rings at Blazing Onion - our favorite local burger joint - and then fell into bed by 9:30 p.m.
On our hike we got to see chipmunks, squirrels, a pika (kind of like a gerbil, but bigger), crazy colored mushrooms, a toad, flowers and lots of berries. We figure if we keep going on these short hikes we may eventually hike the whole of PCT without doing all 2,650 miles at once!
**Stats for this trip: 9.2 miles roundtrip + about 1,000 feet gained in elevation + 2 fairly good size lakes and a bunch of small pond/lakes + some very sore feet/muscles + one very tired doggy = a great weekend backpacking trip!!
Check out our picasa album for lots more pictures.
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