With the goal of leaving the campground at 6:40am, we rose, ate breakfast, packed and loaded the vehicles. Miracle of miracles, we were out exactly on time. We arrived at the permit office a few minutes before opening, secured the permits, drove the hundred yards to the trail head said our thanks and farewells to Sally and Barb and started up the 6000', 7.5 mile grade to Grouse Lake.
So, what is it like to hike with a group of naturalist nerds? Excellent. Intermittent tree ID, flower ID, geologic ramblings and such occupied the conversation up the whole hill, interspersed with regular conversation about kids, jobs, books and movies. We managed about 1000 vertical feet every 50 minutes, followed by a ten-twenty minute rest. So, including lunch, it took us around 8 hours to make the climb. The last three quarters of a mile is a cross country run into Grouse Lake which came off without a hitch.
On the way up this unpopular trail we met only two people, a couple. They warned of voracious mosquitos at the top. They were correct. We arrived at the lake to marauding clouds of the tiny black pests. A couple thousand feet above our heads another type of black menace began to drop large rain drops and hail on us. Both adversaries motivated us to quickly pitch our shelters, which we did.
Craig and I fished thru the rain and hail, scoring four nice 11" trout to enlarge our dinner and calorie count for the day.
An evening of cooking, conversation and a little exploration, along with a quick swim in the lake between mosquito clouds rounded out the day.
It is so nice to finally be here and on our way!! One day down, 29 more to enjoy! Today was a great start.
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