Day 2
“…But I felt in the spirit of reporting all that happened on this trip, I would be remiss if I didn’t note that…MINE WAS THE BIGGEST!”
Around 3 or so, I remember waking hearing falling rock. Had something kicked it loose? We wondered if we would ever see goats here, but had not seen the telltale signs of white wool stuck in small branches. We finally stir around 7, and have coffee and breakfast. Today will be a day of fishing and picture taking, as we brought fishing gear, and a frying pan, just in case! Rigged up, we find a good spot on the NW shore and within minutes Dan has hooked one! The water is so clear you can watch them follow the lure in close before striking at it. He gets it landed, and it’s a nice pan fryer. We’ll keep it! We enjoy the rest of the morning, moving from spot to spot fishing in the clear sparkling water of Larch Lake, and catch 6, bringing back 4 to eat. I didn’t want to mention it, but I felt in the spirit of reporting all that happened on this trip, I would be remiss if I didn’t note that…MINE WAS THE BIGGEST! I only felt it necessary to call attention to this fact, because I know that Dan frittered away many a cast in order to catch one bigger… We fished with barbless hooks so it was easier to release the fish without causing too much damage. Back at camp, we cleaned them, and put them on ice for dinner tonight. I remembered to bring a flour mix to batter them in, just wish I had brought an egg!
“…Still, given their surroundings with grassy banks, and perfectly placed boulders and trees they all seem to deserve names, like Elfin Reflecting Pool, and Unicorn Glen, and so on…”
The rest of the afternoon and early evening, we wandered through flower filled meadows, and along the waterways leading out of Larch Lake, for calling them lakes themselves seems to be too generous, for they are little more than wide spots in the stream. Still, given their surroundings with grassy banks, and perfectly placed boulders and trees they all seem to deserve names, like Elfin Reflecting Pool, and Unicorn Glen, and so on…It truly looks as if this small area is a carefully maintained garden, not subject to the harshness of the winter that visits the area. We tell ourselves that it would be worth it, to return here once the larch turn gold in fall, for truly, how many places can there really be like this on earth? Only God must know…Finally, I utter, “I’m done.” I can’t seem to find a different perspective to take any more pictures. I’m glad that I have an 8GB memory card, for surely, I would have already exhausted my 2GB card I had before.
We once again run into our neighbors, and they stop us to talk for a few minutes. Introductions are made all around, and we find out they are from Leavenworth. They ask us again about our route down into the lakes, and confirm that we did indeed come down over Dead Horse Pass. They tell us that they climbed the ridge from Cup Lake up to the top, but could not find a safe way over to where they thought the pass was, thinking it looked too steep. They kept asking, as we looked uphill towards the pass, “Now, where is it?” “See that patch of snow there, that looks like the Eye of Mordor? Well, it’s just to the right, in the gap in the rocks…” I think they found it hard to believe we had actually crossed that section of loose rock.
“They all looked at us as if we had potatoes growing out of our ears…”
About that time, the fly fisherman came strolling up, and we talked about the pass some more. He too, noted that he was going to go up there, but instead decided to stay in camp, eat some pancakes, and do some fly fishing instead. They all looked at us as if we had potatoes growing out of our ears. The conversation then turned to the trip out, and we told the couple from Leavenworth that we would be stopping in town at the Heidelburger for burgers, onion rings, tater tots, and shakes. They nodded their heads wisely, knowing that our choice of post hike cuisine was definitely worthy. Grinning, they nodding their heads in approval. I think at this point, they decided we weren’t that crazy after all, and we say our goodbyes. Our circular walkabout finds us back at camp, and we have enough time to sneak in a quick nap. There’s nothing like taking a nap in the backcountry, especially if your netted tent allows you to escape from the hordes of bloodsucking insects that constantly hound you outside the confines of your screened sanctuary, a welcome relief from the maddening black fog that follows you everywhere. I sure wish someone would hurry up and invent a personal force field that would repel these absolutely horrible hordes of parasites. I can understand the animals now that seem to go insane from the biting insects, there just doesn’t seem to be any way to get away from them…
“…Within minutes, we were eating delectable, pan fried Cutthroat Trout, with not a hint of muddiness that some trout can have…”
After the nap, we get stuff ready for trout dinner! This will be a treat, as I’ve never done this before backpacking. We dip them in my flour concoction, and drop them in the pan. Within minutes, we were eating delectable, pan fried Cutthroat Trout, with not a hint of muddiness that some trout can have…Truly a backcountry treat, we left nothing to pack out but the slicked clean bones…With dinner dishes cleaned, we set back to watch the evening repeat itself, complete with alpenglow playing across the peaks to our north, fading to darkness for only a short time before having all that surrounds us here in the valley being bathed in the glow of a full moon.
Tonight, though, we notice a nip in the air that wasn’t here last night, and look forward to climbing into warm sleeping bags tonight, for we’ve only brought the bare essentials for our 80 degree days. A light jacket is about the extent of our “cold” weather gear for this trip, that and long pants. We looked again for the green eyes that glowed back at me last night when I wandered off to find a suitable tree to water. With the headlamp, I remembered looking up above the house sized boulder near our camp to see a green set of eyes staring back at me, about 4 feet off the top of the rock. Needless to say, that got my attention, and I hollered at Dan, “Hey, there’s something there staring at me!” It was a little nerve racking at first, because I could see that it was several feet off the top of the rock, like something…Big! Only after moving away from the rock, could I see that the eyes were actually in a tree. We surmised it was maybe an owl, or a small critter. But no eyes tonight.