Alpine Creek Lakes - Death March 2013

This is Bob & Doris our annual death march buddies.

They're sitting on the deck we helped them build last year.

Doris always makes great food before we head out

- just in case it might be our last meal?

We got an early start as their cabin is at Smiley Creek

and this year's trip took us to the Alpine Creek Lakes.

The trailhead is at the end of Lake Alturas.

The first 3 1/2 miles was relatively gentle, 

other than a LOT of downed trees over the trail and

the trail having been washed out earlier in the week in several spots.

It was so bad is some places that we had to wander around awhile to find the trail.

Then the  last 3/4 or so mile of the trail heads pretty much straight up.

with a lot of scrambling on some tricky rocks.

Pretty rugged country.

The view back down the valley was lovely.

Look at that pack mule!

Right about here we met a family coming down from camping

who cautioned us to take the north side of the lake to the inlet of the lake for camping.

Boy were we glad to finally see the lake!

And it is a beauty!

If you look at the left side it looks pretty rocky.

The right/south side had a trail and looks a lot easier.

Right?

Let me just say that the south side was less than 1/3 of a mile and took us  

2 1/2 sweaty, hair raising, heart pounding hours

and more near suicide drops onto rocks and into water than I care to think about. 

This is Doris, Bob and Chuck on the last of the rock slides before we made camp.

This little beauty is the result of "one" of the 

"clinging to a downed tree on a vertical slope with a sheer drop onto rocks" episodes. 

I need not say "we SHOULD have listened to the family" here right?!?

But check out the campsite!!!

The next morning we beautiful skies and brief hikes to 9, 

yes - 9 lakes!!!

When I say brief, I really mean it.

Some were less than a 5 minute walk.

And they were all lovely.

See what I mean?

There were some other nifty things to see besides the lakes.

Check out this crazy stump sitting by itself in the middle of a swampy area.

This big ole rock perched on a ledge.

A sweet lil waterfall.

Some trees that looked straight out of Lord of the Rings. 

 

 Which seemed to grow right out of the rocks.

Did I mention there were some lakes?

Even though they got a little smaller the higher we went,

They were still beautiful.

We couldn't have asked for better weather - nice reflections eh?

 This is probably my fav view- two lakes at once.

 I really need to work on my handheld couple shots.

 Here's our nifty little tent that uses two of our hiking poles instead of tent poles.

 Morning view from our campsite the day we headed out.

 The view across the lake of the "deadly south side".

YES. 

We took the rocky North side on the way out.

 And it was MUCH shorter/easier.

 Which made these two old gals happy.

And the end of the trail was even better!
(see what I mean about needing more practice on the handheld shots? Sheesh!)

 Wonder what this old boy has planned for next year?

(I had PLENTY of flower photos - but there are already too many photos in this post.)