7 miles of hiking • 3500' elevation gain • 2 nights
Special trip for me. I grew up fishing with my dad in the midwest, mostly on Lake Erie. But occasionally doing other things. It wasn't until I was 22 and met my one day wife that I actually got into backpacking. That said my cousin showed an interest in fishing pretty early on and joined my dad and I on a lot of trips. Over the years my interest in fishing waned in intensity but my cousin got all the more focused as he didn't get to do it as often as I did.
That said hes been traveling to SEA for a while now and we casually talked about doing something. I think he got the ball rolling with dates but I took it and ran with it. Folks at NWhikers helped me out greatly with recommending a good spot. I didn't want us to get skunked on the fish-front and was a bit overwhelmed with all of the WA alpine lakes to choose from.
I took the train for the first time in my life (woohoo) which I really enjoyed and met up with my cousin in Seattle on Friday night. I also met a really nice guy from Dominica who runs a dive shop there. If I make it to the Caribbean I will have to visit.
-Sat we drove out, hiked in and fished. We were off trail and getting beyond where the 'fisherman's path' peters out so we had some challenging 'shwacks' on a few hillsides. Had a great camp spot at the lake. Didnt see a soul there. Caught fish! cooked fish! Clear day, really comfortable and beautiful out.
-Sun - started our day with a breakfast trout! hell yes.. then hiked around the lake fishing more. We had fairly good luck, catching a new trout every 5-10 casts as we hit new water. Had lunch at camp then went for a more serious off-trail pursuit up to a high alpine tarn. This was a ton of work and involved some of the steepest bushwacking i've ever done. We were glad we just had tiny day-packs. My cousin proved to be basically as nimble as I am which was a very welcome surprise--a lot of my partners are much less agile. He said "I grew up loving stuff like this" - of course we didn't have Alpine scrambles back in Ohio and Michigan.. but we did have huge boulders set along the lake shore and occasional places on Lake Huron and Superior where we could clamber around.
Monday - Awoke to a glorious clear day but upped and packed on out. Found a dead kid goat on the way out. real weird.
lotta good memories, good jokes, good drink, good views, good fishing.. we gotta do it again!
