Date: Aug 19, 2018
Distance: 9.7 miles
Elevation gain: -
Departing time: 6:30 am
Finishing time: 12:20 pm
Moving time: 5 hours 10 minutes
WINTER IS COMING! Mornings in the mountains are brisk no matter what time of year, but this was definitely the first hike for that I bundled up in my Mountain Hardware puffy coat, hat and gloves to take off for our hike.
It wasn't long before I shed the coat though, as this trail was another bun blaster. The beginning of the trail started up with a steep incline. This hike starts at the same trailhead and travels fairly close to the Gore Lake trail that we did earlier this month, but sadly was not nearly as pretty. Instead of following the valley, this trail leads you up along the side of a mountain covered in trees too dense to really get a view. Because of this and the incline, my camera stayed put away most of the hike. I finally managed to catch a break in the trees to take a photo of the morning sun shining through the crazy amount of smoke.
When we reached the lake, it was still very cold and the combo of a cloudy day and smoke from the wildfires didn't make for a spectacular view either. We bundled back up, ate our granola bars and turned back for the day. On the way down it did warm up as we lost elevation. Our last mile or 2 was spent enjoying the warm sun.