Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Aneroid Lake

Yikes Stripes!!! I apologize for being such a lazy blogger.....

Finally-- Aneroid Lake. I was compelled to backpack to this spot after spending an incredibly noisy and crowded night at the large, expensive Wallowa Lake campground. This was officially my first time backpacking overnight by myself and I was really excited to find some peace and quiet.

The hike itself was no picnic. It was a 6 mile hike up 3000'. It was a workout. 
This is a picture of the trail into the Eagle Cap Wilderness. It was so beautiful.

It is difficult to explain in words how beautiful this lake was. After walking in, I was speechless (not that there was anyone to talk to), but I pretty much stared with my mouth open the entire time.
This was my campsite. Nuts huh?
Once we got settled in, Baby and I did some exploring around the lake.  
There were a few cabins on the north end of the lake that appeared to have a few people staying in them. This brought me some comfort since there were no other campers there. Luckily they were pretty far away, so it still felt like I had the lake to myself. 

The lake was also full of fish. I cast my lure into the lake a few times before catching a beautiful fish. The fish were literally jumping out of the lake.

The water was crystal clear, making it very easy to see the prominent rock plateaus just beneath the surface.
I read my book for a few hours from this spot. Baby was my reading partner.
Happy girls! (okay- Baby didn't look happy in this pic, but that is because I make her pose for pics about 137 times each time we take a trip. She is a good sport.)
It definitely felt like I was at 7500' when I woke up the next morning. My thermometer said it was about 39 degrees. C-H-I-L-L-Y!!!
The morning sun.

There was a small lake next to Aneroid Lake called, "Roger Lake". I had to take a picture for my Dad since his name is ROGER!
The hike out of the Eagle Cap Wilderness was much easier than the climb up. Baby was a chipmunk chasing fool and I think she actually felt like a hunter. She could more appropriately be classified as a chaser since she has never caught anything, except maybe a fly. Gotta love her!

We were back at the trailhead by noon. I was overheating from the hike and headed promptly to get a cold beer, followed by a day floating on Wallowa lake. Joseph treated me well!

1 comment:

Heather said...

Thanks for posting about your trip to Aneriod Lake. You're inspired me to make the trip (in one day) sometime soon when I'm not serving breakfast to our B&B guests. How beautiful!