Skip to main content

Colchuck Lake, Central Cascades


A life time ago in June, we ventured up Colchuck Lake Trail for the first time. A tough, but absolutely beautiful hike. I think the hardest part was the constant climbing over rocks, boulders, and tree roots. It was a fabulous hike, very tiring, but so worth the effort. I had read the description of this trail several times, read all kinds of trail reports and the I think the thing that keep me from trying this trail was the description of the boulder field when you cross the 2nd bridge. This part always seemed rather intimidating. The views looking down the valley towards Stuart Lake are gorgeous, not knowing exactly where Colchuck Lake sat, the trail seemed long. When we reached the lake we had the pleasure of two goats coming to check us out. They stayed pretty close the whole time we ate our lunch and guarded our packs. Lots of hikers coming up and down the trail. We relaxed and checked the pass out and the surrounding area out for folks being more adventures than us. The hike down was a little bone jarring on the knees, didn't help that I slipped off a rock and stabbed my arm with a dead tree limb. Nothing like spreading the pain around. By the time we reached the trail head the parking lot was packed all the way down the road. I thought I was going to have to take a little bit of someone else's paint home with me in order to get out of the narrow lined on both sides with cars, road. But we managed to squeeze out with out a new paint job needed. Beautiful hike, I would hike it again, but definitely took us plenty of stops, catch your breath time outs on the way up.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cutthroat Trail.......Snowshoeing North Cascades Highway

I have a confession to make, I have been having some winter blues. Not sure if they can be officially called winter blues due to we have had little to no winter. I have been very impatiently waiting for the snow to arrive, it comes, blows through, makes the ground white, then its gone. The last few days we have been sitting at temperatures in the 40's. What is up with winter. One thing I can say for sure is I am very thankful for the few trips we made up highway 20 before the silver star gate was closed. Our trip to Cutthroat Trail was back in November, when we had visions of winter coming to the valley very soon. The snow was nice and fluffy and deep. Pleasant day to get out and enjoy it, one of those days where your not sure if the clouds where going to allow the blue sky to show it self or not. We parked right off the highway with a couple of other cars and Snowshoed up the road to the trail head. Wasn't very long and more hikers, cross country skiers, and furry ...
3 comments
Read more

The Places We Can Go

Life goes on, things change, storms of life come and go.  One thing that always remains the same is the feeling and quiet peace I feel from being in the mountains.  This was a spur of the moment overnight trip.  It was so needed and such a beautiful time.  Left the house around 2:30 PM, traffic was so slow heading up Hwy 20, lots of folks heading out of Mazama.  Arrived at the trail head a few minutes before 4 PM, and we were off down the trail in a few minutes.  Three quarters of a mile down the trail a bee or some kind of flying ant decided to bite my nieces eye lid, talk about hysteria for a moment.   I was pretty sure our trip was over, but we were able to move on with a very cold creek soaked multipurpose face mask.  The sun was sinking fast and the wind was howling by the time we reached the top.  Made some quick decisions on the best place to park the tents, and we set up camp.  It was truly an incredible evening, hiked aroun...
Post a Comment
Read more

Carlton Complex Wildfire, Pateros Washington

The last few weeks have been crazy busy. I spent last weekend moving my animals back home to a mostly burnt out barn yard. We had a small patch of trees and garden space that escaped the fire, which was where my dog pens were located. So they were able to return to a fairly normal life. The horse pen was kind of a hit and miss burnt area, since there wasn't a whole lot of vegetetaion in it the fences took most of the heat. The metal panels got a nice rusty color to them, with some serious scorch marks. Besides my horse having red smudge colored marks on his nose from the fencing he seems to be adjusting to his return home. We have found temporary living close by so it has made taking care of my animals easier, and a stress off of where we be this winter. The town is slowly getting the debris removed and homesteads cleaned up. Lots of piles of rubble and cut down trees piled up in the city lot areas. I understand that Okanogan County and the Confederated Tribes Of the Co...
1 comment
Read more