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The second most unforgetable hike (after hidden lake). This one consisted of us undertaking an 1.5 hour approach, vicious hike and some incredible scrambling (which looking back seems rather foolish). Basic plan was to hike between two mountains, make a left turn into another valley, and go as high as possible. Here we are already past the approach part, beginning to take on the hill.
Pictured: Neil, Paul and me
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Without any prior knowledge of the area, we took the most difficult route possible. This was just one of the many obstacles in our way; very nice looking, lots of shade, cool, but still an obstacle. Navigating around it meant coming a long way down, and climbing back up.
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A look down the opposite side of the valley... maybe our route was not so bad after all.
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A section of burnt out trees, and Paul looking all cool on top of some dead stump. Way to go!
Pictured: Paul
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Finally we're out of the woods, but not for much better. And no, the camera was not tilted, that is the actual slope we negotiated.
Pictured: Neil and Colin
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After the left turn into another valley, we find ourselves looking up a lovely mountain stream, originating at a big pile of melting snow no doubt.
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Higher up now, and closer to our eventual target.
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Closer still.
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Paul and me were the first ones to reach the interim target. This was a little alcove (which probably produced a rather spectacular waterfall after rain), with the stream dribbling down forming a small pool at the floor. Convinient cooling location.
Pictured: Paul and me
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This is the pool I was refering to earlier. After a short food break, part of the group (Csaba, me and some other guy) went up scrambling higher, without backpacks or camera (sorry). We were stopped by a giant 4 meter high 'stair', and abandoned scaling it after some ominous looking clouds started gathering above us. Hey, either walk down, or slide down several hundred meters of bare rock. Easy choice. By the way, the retarded looking humanoid on the right is the result of a failed genetic expreriment; he followed us from the parking lot.
Pictured: Csaba, me, Colin and Neil
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Let us skip all the way down. The more obvious way up the mountain would be this dried up water runoff, but we had enough of walking on crushed rocks from the past half hour (you try it!). But it was fast, and good enough to get down before the rain got us. We still got sprinkled, but that was a welcomed relief. The mutant is looking a bit less retarded now; we might give him a ride back to the city.
Pictured: Me, Neil and Paul
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If you think Colin is in the process of saying 'oh, fuck!', you're right. By the time we got down to the river valley our feet were killing us, despite the stiff soles on our hiking boots. You just start feeling every pebble after a while.
Pictured: Colin
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We found these cool looking flowers on the way back to the car. Csaba just couldn't resist taking a couple of shots.
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Is that civilization I see there? We're almost done, and you can tell more or less how far we had to go. See that green mountain in the background? Well, we had to walk around it, and then some more. Next time we break though the chain gate and drive right up to the mountain. Ironically, half way to the car we found a 4x4 and some people manning a marathon booth. The route stretched all the way back to the highway and down to the dam. Let's just say we had fun driving back.
Pictured: Paul and Neil
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