Redfish Lake area offers great camping, trails, food, and adventure.
As always, prints are available over at the stillwildwest.com, and more pictures of Idaho and the Sawtooths are there in the galleries.
After my Alice-Toxaway Loop I was beat. I was very dehydrated, though that came on quikly and my legs were spent from the big rig and heavy pack and I was sick of mountains and wet feet, and dry forests, so I decided to spend a half day at the marina beach of Redfish Lake near the lodge and rest up. The review of the food is on my other blog about food and cooking, youngbrokeandclueless.blogspot.com, which is shared, sort of, with a friend of mine, who no longer posts and rarely talks to me. She's busy, and I'm probably a bit too much of a jerk to stand in person for long, so that's that.
The marina was fun. I loosened my legs by swimming in the cold waist-high waters and running forward, backward, and sideways. And I enjoyed the views of mountains and fit people, or at least, people who were not morbidly obese and disgusting to themselves and the dignity of the human form. Congratulations Idaho, that was the least waddling I've seen in a crowd in a long time. Probably it is a coincidence that I saw only one fast food restaurant in a 150 mile stretch. That can't have anything to do with it.
I camped the night and made some decisions for the gear on the next trip. Mostly I decided my green thin sleeping bag is too thin to bother with taking into the mountains. Sure I save 2 pounds and lots of space in the pack, but I also run a risk of freezing to death. So its for summer only now. Sleeping in it by the lake, in a tent, was awful. I was very comfortable until morning, then got bad chills. The moon in the Sawtooths was so bright that the night held off until around 10:30 pm, and when I awoke multiple times to run to the outhouse- I drank near a gallon of fluids to refresh myself- I patted the sand thinking it had snowed. The whole world was white and glowing. Very neat.
I felt strong in morning, and packed, and ate and tried not to forget anything for once. I took ice axe and crampons and rock shoes this time, along with the marine bag, and no tent, which traded about 6 new lbs of stuff for about 12 lbs of stuff I left behind. Then I made for the 12 pm shuttle boat across the lake. Round trip is $16.00, and many climbers complain about the price and the time of the runs- 9 am, 12 pm, 3, 5, and 7 pm. But I think that is pretty reasonable. Your alternative is to hike 5 miles each way extra around the long dry hilly sides of the lake, through pine forests touched by that scourge, the asian beetle. Not worth it, I say. I chose the boat.
As for the trail, it is hot, though shaded, and doable any time of day. It is hilly, but pretty, not ravaged by beetles in most spots, with 21 long switchbacks to Alpine Lake- a beautiful spot, though the forest is badly thinned and the trees are all dying- shown above from the south and north shores. Mosquitoes are plentiful and other hikers will abound, but still, its a great destination for a day. I took 3+ hours to get up there, and made it down in 2+. Elephant's Perch is another popular spot where you can probably find climbers gearing up and heading up the huge walls. On my first day, starting at noon, I decided to press on and over Baron Pass, where I wanted to finish at Baron Lakes. I did that pretty easy, getting there at 7 pm just as some rain started to fall and having climbed one peak at the pass- the dark interesting peak with clouds all around me. I took a panoramic movie to show how silly it was probably to be up there, though I read the clouds perfect and got down the pass just as the rain started. It was a challenging climb, with several tricky and exposed moves, and most people should not try it, at least without a spotter, though you do not need rope, and I did it without the climbing shoes, though those would have been safer, and smarter.
Baron Lake was pretty, though crossing the spring creek was a trick, and I got my feet a little wet as the log bridges were all unsteady and part submerged. I got eating and found shelter under some trees that stopped most of the raindrops, and munched away as a distracted deer came sniffling right up to me with only a large boulder between us and starting licking my sweaty socks I had laid out as I watched. She looked up and about jumped all off the ground to see me there. This was one emaciated deer. I wanted to throw her a cookie, or a dorito, but what she really needed was salt. That night she and a friend kept coming around and eating within 5 feet of my ears, tearing up the ground for roots and shrubs. They are ready for summer and blooming I am sure! Deer are not very quiet creatures, nor very alert ones, when you are used to the woods. I always wondered how Indians could shoot them with arrows, as they are skittish. But I generally know they are there long before they know I am near nowadays. They crunch leaves and branches, clop around gracelessly on their hooves with a kind of shuffling amble when not fleeing, and walk with their noses to the ground. Unless the wind carries your scent to them, they really will walk right into you. And I can sneak up on them when I want. Deer are also hard on a forest, much worse with their hooves than a good hiker is in boots on the soil and mud and vegetation and they dig and tear and chew anything. Its easy to see why population density with deer will destroy a forest and they must be hunted. They are also noisy eaters and kept waking me, and for starving beasts, they wasted a lot of energy running a mile away in a panic every time I grunted or stirred when they woke me, then ambling back to eat leaves again. Its easy to see with that kind of energy trade off, why they were starving! So there goes the myth about deer being the gentle majestic queens of the forest.
Morning brought the usual Sawtooth specialty: a 5 minute red light spectacular to the cliffs before it disappeared. You have to catch it at just the right moment or it will think the whole day was ugly and the cliffs washed out the whole time! I was looking at a waterfall and had a lake on the map that I wanted to try bushwhacking to, and thinking the waterfall must lead me to it, and seeing a shelf up above the fall, I made for it. There was a trail leading me much of the way, and I passed a stock tie up, so I guess this little shelf I was on between lakes is meant to be accessed by the riders, and that did make things easier. I found the falls and followed them getting lots of good shots and making for a wild peak up above me, which I thought for a while was the famous Warbonnet, but finding I was wrong as I closed in. Also I picked the wrong shelf for the raised hanging lake. I did some ice climbing and eventually found the lake, though only from a distance, as I did not climb further. The lake was near frozen completely anyway and looked about like the ice field I had been on. I was disappointed to waste half a hard morning, so I decided to get to a peak up above me.
I worked my way up hard scree, with some small slides going below me, and made glacially slow moves- the kind that are safe but tedious, and which carved out these peaks originally. I slowly gained the ridge, and made my way to a peak, not one of the highest on the famous Monte Verita, but jagged enough and tricky enough to sort of make the time worth it. Plus I didn't want to head back down the long swerving route I'd taken yet and was dawdling. I should have used the rock shoes as I had them and had carried the weight, but I only made 4 moves that needed them. The exposure was terrific, as I had to go sideways across some very narrow vertical-ish boulders stacked together, and could only slap the final rock, as it was overhanging, but it was something. Several hours of about the same got me back down, though I nearly cliffed-out twice (where going down further is impossible) trying to save time and make short cuts.
I snacked and dried off at my lake, and mulled over going back up another route of Monte Verita to the highest point on the ridge, overlooking the Feather Lakes. The route was cool, but mostly a walk, and it was high noon, and would have taken the whole afternoon, been hot, and left me with very bleached photos. I decided against it. I wanted to save energy for Feather Lakes and had to go back over the pass that day. Baron Pass was similar to the Pass near Snowyside Peak on my other route: the North side was snowbound and slippery and melting fast, making for danger and not much fun. So I took my time, and kept water near at hand.
In the above pics, you can see the actual Warbonnet- is there a more aptly named mountain in this world? And on the right, is the final "ledge"/ridge over to the tilted pointy stone that I slapped and was my summit for the morning.
For the afternoon I planned to head to the Feather Lakes, hidden lakes located in a maze of high peaks surrounded by other high peaks, by going over the ridge near Alpine Lake. There is no pass, no trail, and none is possible, as the ridge is nasty, steep, and rotten. I will save all that for the next post, coming soon.
As for the trail, it is hot, though shaded, and doable any time of day. It is hilly, but pretty, not ravaged by beetles in most spots, with 21 long switchbacks to Alpine Lake- a beautiful spot, though the forest is badly thinned and the trees are all dying- shown above from the south and north shores. Mosquitoes are plentiful and other hikers will abound, but still, its a great destination for a day. I took 3+ hours to get up there, and made it down in 2+. Elephant's Perch is another popular spot where you can probably find climbers gearing up and heading up the huge walls. On my first day, starting at noon, I decided to press on and over Baron Pass, where I wanted to finish at Baron Lakes. I did that pretty easy, getting there at 7 pm just as some rain started to fall and having climbed one peak at the pass- the dark interesting peak with clouds all around me. I took a panoramic movie to show how silly it was probably to be up there, though I read the clouds perfect and got down the pass just as the rain started. It was a challenging climb, with several tricky and exposed moves, and most people should not try it, at least without a spotter, though you do not need rope, and I did it without the climbing shoes, though those would have been safer, and smarter.
Morning brought the usual Sawtooth specialty: a 5 minute red light spectacular to the cliffs before it disappeared. You have to catch it at just the right moment or it will think the whole day was ugly and the cliffs washed out the whole time! I was looking at a waterfall and had a lake on the map that I wanted to try bushwhacking to, and thinking the waterfall must lead me to it, and seeing a shelf up above the fall, I made for it. There was a trail leading me much of the way, and I passed a stock tie up, so I guess this little shelf I was on between lakes is meant to be accessed by the riders, and that did make things easier. I found the falls and followed them getting lots of good shots and making for a wild peak up above me, which I thought for a while was the famous Warbonnet, but finding I was wrong as I closed in. Also I picked the wrong shelf for the raised hanging lake. I did some ice climbing and eventually found the lake, though only from a distance, as I did not climb further. The lake was near frozen completely anyway and looked about like the ice field I had been on. I was disappointed to waste half a hard morning, so I decided to get to a peak up above me.
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