For the 4th of July weekend i decided that i wanted to get away for the long weekend, and do my first multi-night backcountry campout. For this i decided to go to the west fork of the Foss River. Looking at the trail report, this trail linked up to 5 lakes, each lake more spectacular then the next. The only hiccup that we saw was simply that there was snow above Trout Lake, and the last person that went could not finish the hike due to, too much snow, and no visible trail. With these things in mind, our packs all loaded we headed out.
Saturday was a spectacular day, we left late in the day around 2 and as soon as we left, was immediately stuck in traffic. A small part of me worried as we drove along at a 2 mph rate that there would be a lot of people already at the trail, and already camping. I will admit that the big part I love about back country camping is the simple solitude of it. To be able to go out in the wilderness, and share it with a few select people, is truly enjoyable, and the farther you go, and get away from people, the more free i feel. Although i am a lover of technology, i also feel that at times we can get lost in it. Where it becomes too much of our regular lives, it’s almost like an addiction. I think its important to go out in nature, or out of your area, and get away from it all, be free from distraction, from massive's of people, and find yourself. Take a technology break if you will, from the things that become more and more ingrained in our lives.
So after a long drive along Hwy 2 at around 10mph we finally cleared the traffic, and made the trailhead. i was at first pleasantly surprised to find a nice forest service road, at first initially paved, that then gave way to gravel with minimal potholes. I will admit, i do not have the backcountry car, i have an older mercury sable, which gets me to where i need to be, but will not if i face too much of an obstacle, like massive potholes, or obstructions in the road. Needless to say this road had none of that, and i was greeted at the trailhead with only 4 other cars, and at 4:30 in the afternoon on a Saturday of a 3 day weekend, i found that quite awesome. The likelihood of all of these car’s actually staying overnight was minimal, so i knew the lake would be a solitary camp. Leaving later in the afternoon is a great choice if you are planning on staying overnight, it eliminates most of the super hot weather in the daytime, as by the time we hit the exposed areas of the trail, the sun had already dipped below the other side of the mountains for a shady but steep hike. The trail started nice, but instantly hit a snag with a sign "Experience backpackers only" that read follow the pink flags. Looking around we found them, and timidly followed the pink flags, along a dried up river alongside another river until we came to a passing. Now the passing was simply a fallen log, over a raging river with a pink flag on the other side, beckoning for us to follow. Having my puppy with me, i first looked around to see if there was a better way to cross, but going downstream a bit, i did not find anything that wasnt fast moving, and quite deep, with that being said, i headed towards to the fallen log.
Now with a 50 lb backpack on, and no guide poles i slowly started walking over the slippery log. i slowly inched my way across and once on the other side i turned to find that my puppy had followed me across. When i stopped though he got nervous and started walking back, i then grabbed him by the tail and made sure he didn't try that crossing again. It’s not like he was worried, i am sure, but i was worried for him. I helped him down form the log, and waited for Tressa ( my fiance) to cross.
After we had both successfully crossed, and our blood pumping a little faster, we found another pink flag through the trees, and continued to make our way. The rest of the hike for that day was pretty simple, there was quite a few tree's that you had to maneuver up and over or under or around. Which isn't to bad, but when you have big pack on, all buckled up, it makes these obstacles just a bit trickier. Our puppy though, Beaker is ever the hiker, he never wants to be picked up to cross obstacles, always going for his own path, either following us up and over logs, or simply climbing up the side of a mountain and then back down again, only to look at us like, that was easy, why didn't you try that. I really think our puppy just shows off sometimes.
The hike itself was short to the first lake, after you navigated the obstacles, and other then a short but steep incline we made it to Trout Lake.
We were the only people up there at that time, although we ran into a few people coming down the trail. We decided to camp at a spot right by the lake, with a stellar view of the lake and the mountains behind it. Since there were no people at the lake, we decided to save the other lakes for tomorrow, and setup camp. One big reason for this, was simply it was still nice out, and i really wanted to go swimming. Now i know that this is glacial/snow melt water, and i was expecting cold, but it was warm enough so i figured if there was a time...now was it. So we set up camp, and shortly after donning my swimsuit i jumped into the lake. Which immediately followed me jumping out of the lake, because damn that was cold.
The next day we broke camp early and headed up the rest of the mountain. On the way up crossing a river on the way up, we came upon some backpackers coming down the mountain. After talking with them about the snow, they informed us that around the corner we were going to hit some snow. Now it is the first of July and i was expecting snow, but not massive fields of snow, covering whatever trail was there. This is really where the hiking got fun. Because now we weren't really following a trail, more just a few footsteps in the snow, at sometimes, it was hard to tell if we even were. At one point we lost the trail completely and decided to just traverse up the side of the mountain to a ridge where we assumed there was a lake on the other side. After about half way up the mountain in the snow, our puppy ever the leader branched off to the right. looking over at him, i noticed that he was stopped and looking at me like, i was an idiot. And upon closer inspection, i realized i was, because he was sitting at the trail, and we were way off. So we followed him for the rest of that section. After crossing two fields of snow, we finally came upon copper lake. At this time we were wet from crossing the river, and cold from traversing through the snow, in wet shoes. We decided to go as far as we felt comfortable, and luckily found a solitary campsite again, right on the lake that we traversed down to, and setup camp. We knew where the trail was, and how to get back to it, so we decided that this was a great place to stop. I will admit it was quite strange one night camping in the sun and blue sky's staring at a crystal clear alpine lake, with granite walls surrounding you one night, to starring out on a frozen lake, covered in snow, with a snow laced mountain and hills as the backdrop, sitting in the only non-snow covered location and wondering where we in Alaska? The massive change in weather was quite a blast, and our dog loves the snow, so for him it was joy. He chases snowballs down the side of mound of snow, jumping off at the very last second, only to repeat it all over again.
Being so far off the trail we only came upon one other group of day hikers, and only because they were lost and found us because of our campfire. I directed them as best as i could, and although i never saw them again, can only hope they made it back to the trail safe and sound. Because they were only in shorts and t-shirts and in the snow at night, it can get quite cold. I will say i enjoyed both lakes, and can’t wait to go back and see what the other lakes look like, maybe not covered in snow, but right now i don’t see that as a chance until maybe august, maybe then the snow will have melted....just to start accumulating again.
Well i guess i will stop this one here, maybe add some more later, but i hope you enjoyed my experience and let me know what you would like to hear more of in the future.
Saturday was a spectacular day, we left late in the day around 2 and as soon as we left, was immediately stuck in traffic. A small part of me worried as we drove along at a 2 mph rate that there would be a lot of people already at the trail, and already camping. I will admit that the big part I love about back country camping is the simple solitude of it. To be able to go out in the wilderness, and share it with a few select people, is truly enjoyable, and the farther you go, and get away from people, the more free i feel. Although i am a lover of technology, i also feel that at times we can get lost in it. Where it becomes too much of our regular lives, it’s almost like an addiction. I think its important to go out in nature, or out of your area, and get away from it all, be free from distraction, from massive's of people, and find yourself. Take a technology break if you will, from the things that become more and more ingrained in our lives.
So after a long drive along Hwy 2 at around 10mph we finally cleared the traffic, and made the trailhead. i was at first pleasantly surprised to find a nice forest service road, at first initially paved, that then gave way to gravel with minimal potholes. I will admit, i do not have the backcountry car, i have an older mercury sable, which gets me to where i need to be, but will not if i face too much of an obstacle, like massive potholes, or obstructions in the road. Needless to say this road had none of that, and i was greeted at the trailhead with only 4 other cars, and at 4:30 in the afternoon on a Saturday of a 3 day weekend, i found that quite awesome. The likelihood of all of these car’s actually staying overnight was minimal, so i knew the lake would be a solitary camp. Leaving later in the afternoon is a great choice if you are planning on staying overnight, it eliminates most of the super hot weather in the daytime, as by the time we hit the exposed areas of the trail, the sun had already dipped below the other side of the mountains for a shady but steep hike. The trail started nice, but instantly hit a snag with a sign "Experience backpackers only" that read follow the pink flags. Looking around we found them, and timidly followed the pink flags, along a dried up river alongside another river until we came to a passing. Now the passing was simply a fallen log, over a raging river with a pink flag on the other side, beckoning for us to follow. Having my puppy with me, i first looked around to see if there was a better way to cross, but going downstream a bit, i did not find anything that wasnt fast moving, and quite deep, with that being said, i headed towards to the fallen log.
Now with a 50 lb backpack on, and no guide poles i slowly started walking over the slippery log. i slowly inched my way across and once on the other side i turned to find that my puppy had followed me across. When i stopped though he got nervous and started walking back, i then grabbed him by the tail and made sure he didn't try that crossing again. It’s not like he was worried, i am sure, but i was worried for him. I helped him down form the log, and waited for Tressa ( my fiance) to cross.
After we had both successfully crossed, and our blood pumping a little faster, we found another pink flag through the trees, and continued to make our way. The rest of the hike for that day was pretty simple, there was quite a few tree's that you had to maneuver up and over or under or around. Which isn't to bad, but when you have big pack on, all buckled up, it makes these obstacles just a bit trickier. Our puppy though, Beaker is ever the hiker, he never wants to be picked up to cross obstacles, always going for his own path, either following us up and over logs, or simply climbing up the side of a mountain and then back down again, only to look at us like, that was easy, why didn't you try that. I really think our puppy just shows off sometimes.
The hike itself was short to the first lake, after you navigated the obstacles, and other then a short but steep incline we made it to Trout Lake.
We were the only people up there at that time, although we ran into a few people coming down the trail. We decided to camp at a spot right by the lake, with a stellar view of the lake and the mountains behind it. Since there were no people at the lake, we decided to save the other lakes for tomorrow, and setup camp. One big reason for this, was simply it was still nice out, and i really wanted to go swimming. Now i know that this is glacial/snow melt water, and i was expecting cold, but it was warm enough so i figured if there was a time...now was it. So we set up camp, and shortly after donning my swimsuit i jumped into the lake. Which immediately followed me jumping out of the lake, because damn that was cold.
The next day we broke camp early and headed up the rest of the mountain. On the way up crossing a river on the way up, we came upon some backpackers coming down the mountain. After talking with them about the snow, they informed us that around the corner we were going to hit some snow. Now it is the first of July and i was expecting snow, but not massive fields of snow, covering whatever trail was there. This is really where the hiking got fun. Because now we weren't really following a trail, more just a few footsteps in the snow, at sometimes, it was hard to tell if we even were. At one point we lost the trail completely and decided to just traverse up the side of the mountain to a ridge where we assumed there was a lake on the other side. After about half way up the mountain in the snow, our puppy ever the leader branched off to the right. looking over at him, i noticed that he was stopped and looking at me like, i was an idiot. And upon closer inspection, i realized i was, because he was sitting at the trail, and we were way off. So we followed him for the rest of that section. After crossing two fields of snow, we finally came upon copper lake. At this time we were wet from crossing the river, and cold from traversing through the snow, in wet shoes. We decided to go as far as we felt comfortable, and luckily found a solitary campsite again, right on the lake that we traversed down to, and setup camp. We knew where the trail was, and how to get back to it, so we decided that this was a great place to stop. I will admit it was quite strange one night camping in the sun and blue sky's staring at a crystal clear alpine lake, with granite walls surrounding you one night, to starring out on a frozen lake, covered in snow, with a snow laced mountain and hills as the backdrop, sitting in the only non-snow covered location and wondering where we in Alaska? The massive change in weather was quite a blast, and our dog loves the snow, so for him it was joy. He chases snowballs down the side of mound of snow, jumping off at the very last second, only to repeat it all over again.
Being so far off the trail we only came upon one other group of day hikers, and only because they were lost and found us because of our campfire. I directed them as best as i could, and although i never saw them again, can only hope they made it back to the trail safe and sound. Because they were only in shorts and t-shirts and in the snow at night, it can get quite cold. I will say i enjoyed both lakes, and can’t wait to go back and see what the other lakes look like, maybe not covered in snow, but right now i don’t see that as a chance until maybe august, maybe then the snow will have melted....just to start accumulating again.
Well i guess i will stop this one here, maybe add some more later, but i hope you enjoyed my experience and let me know what you would like to hear more of in the future.
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