12.5 miles of hiking • 4000' elevation gain • 1 night
This overnight trip/hike has been on our to-do list for quite a while and we finally got to complete it. Original plan was to hike into and camp at Burnt Lake, but when we arrived there were only a few sites left and none that really caught our attention. So then we decided to continue on to Cast Lake which ended up being a great call. We ended up doing around 6 miles and 3000' elevation gain that day - and being the first loooong trip that our dog has done since returning from the DL it was more than enough. Climbing up and over Zig Zag as the sun was setting was incredibly peaceful and offered some amazing vistas looking down into the MHNF.
In the morning we broke camp after eating tasty spam & eggs for breakfast and headed down the mountain. It was one of the few hot and dry days that we have had this summer - and once we made it back to the road and through the Riley Horse Campground we were punished by the heat radiating off of the road and without cover from the sun for the last 3 miles. We made a decision to try and hitch hike up to our car at one point on the next car that drove by - well that didn't happen as we did not see one additional car from that time until we had arrived at our car and finished loading the bags into the trunk. Very funny and ironic, but it was a great overnight trip and would definitely recommend this for a quick in and out trip that is a nice loop to not double back on your tracks.
