Some pictures from The Enchantments

[Shpongled]

These pics are from last weekend at Lake Caroline and Windy Pass. This coming weekend I'll be in the Core Enchantments where it's even more amazing.

It's really tempting to post the GPS map route and explain the elevation gain and total distances and get all geeky but I'm not going to. I'll just say it was about 17 miles total. We started at 3,200 feet and the highest we got was 7,380 feet.

This is Little Eightmile Lake and our first stop for a break.

There's a junction at Little Eightmile Lake that leads to Lake Caroline, and as soon as you take it, you start going up and up and up. In this one you can see Little Eightmile Lake directly below. There was a wildfire in this area in the 90's and that's why all the trees are dead and burnt.

You can see Eightmile Lake in this one. Just off camera to the left is Little Eightmile Lake.

I wish this pic had proper focus. The wildflowers out there were astoundingly vibrant.

After that break we huffed it the rest of the way and I was grunting and breathing too hard to take any more pictures until we finally caught our first glimpse of Lake Caroline.

From our campsite.

Hard to find level ground out there, but this worked out just fine.

Now we're heading up to Windy Pass, 1,200 feet higher than our camp in 2 miles. We'd heard the views are certainly worth the effort once you got there, so we decided to give it a go.

It was really hot for this part.

 

[Shpongled]

This is looking back behind me at the way we came up as we head towards Windy Pass.

First marmot sighting!!!

Looking back again. By now my boots were soaked through from the snow. But these expanding views made me forget quickly.

The clouds were intense the whole time, but it never rained on us and was never too cold.

At the top of the ridge now, looking over to the other side. Right here, we're about 180 feet above Windy Pass.

That is Nick standing where we were all just hanging out. We started walking down and he stayed there, packing his bag back up. I turned back and saw this view and had to take a picture.

Heading back down the pass now.

No fires allowed above 5,000 feet, so this is how we kept ourselves warm at nightt.

Couldn't get a good enough view to tell what this guy was, but we definitely watched it swoop out of the trees, circle the lake a few times, land there, and then dive down towards the lake and take a fish. Epic.

Good times! Next weekend should be even better

 

[perfecterror]

holy wow! ...truly spectacular!

 

[Chromatose]

MARMOTS!!!

Looks amazing Kevin, thanks for sharing pics

 

[derek]

Awesome, dude, awesome. What a place our world is.

 

[stefan86]

oh, awesome landscapes

 

[stefan86]

I especially liked the lake. Chillout spot to say the least

 

[rebirth]

very nice, I must say

did yuou leave any rubbish on the moutain sides????

 

[Shpongled]

Thanks y'alls

Definitely didn't leave any rubbish anywhere. I wouldn't be able to live with myself until I went back and picked it up.

 

[neal]

most excellent

 

[fading]

Stellar Pics! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Shpongled]

Friend sent a few of yours truly

 

[Morbides]

Friend sent a few of yours truly

'GTFO!'

Beautiful pics -as always.

 

[Supravital Knight]

Cool pics as always Keven, and it's nice to see how nature rebounds after fires. I think those purple flowers are a variety of "Foxglove."

 

[Altitudes]

Absolutely beautiful. And marmots! I take it you go camping often, which is a great thing. What was the elevation of the lakeside you camped at? Seems like you hiked pretty far up to set camp. I'm sure the air was cool and crisp

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

Enchantment?


ENCHANTMENT!

 

[Det Som Engang Var]

 

[Iris]

Wow kevin, those pics are stunning.
Btw, i think those flowers are of the Lupinus family and Marmots are cool.

Lupinus Perennis (= wild Lupine)

 

[Shpongled]

Absolutely beautiful. And marmots! I take it you go camping often, which is a great thing. What was the elevation of the lakeside you camped at? Seems like you hiked pretty far up to set camp. I'm sure the air was cool and crisp

Yeah, I camp and hike all the time, especially in the summer and fall seasons. I literally can't get enough. 5 of the past 6, and this weekend coming up, I'm out doing something or other. Some backpacking, some 'pseudo car camping' (we walk about a half mile or so away from the cars and never return to them until we're leaving), some solo stuff. My friend is trying really hard to get me into rock climbing and mountaineering right now, so I'll probably start doing that eventually, too.

On that hike to LC, we started out at 3300ft and the lake lies at 6190ft, so we climbed a total of almost 3000ft. The hike was 5.5 miles total and the first 2.5 miles were basically a cakewalk compared to the grunt of the last 3 miles. The air was amazing and I was really tripped out by just how fast it can start pissing down rain and soak everything to it's core and then instantly disappear and the sun come out and dry everything back to normal as fast as it got wet. It was awesome.

Iris, thanks You are definitely correct on the flowers. They are really neat and all over the place in this area, not just up in that part.

 

[Shpongled]

Pics from this weekend, the other end of The Enchantments. We started out at 1300ft and ended up at Snow Lake which lies at 5415ft. 4115ft elevation gain in 6.5 miles, this time longer and more consistently uphill but not as steep.

This is an old dam that separates Upper and Lower Snow Lakes.

Yep, that sign says "trail". We wanted to camp at Upper, so we had to cross it. It wasn't that bad, I went with my new boots on the way in and they kicked ass, my feet were dry as shit! There's a better pic of the crossing coming up, I forgot to take one on the way in.

That night we camped at Snow Lake and the next day, 3 of us got up and set out to get to the Core Enchantments, another 3.5 miles and 1300ft up a boulder field. It was awesome!

Up into that snow is where we're heading.

Made it.

This is basically the first thing you see after that sign. Lake Viviane and Prusik Peak.

Turn 180 degrees from there and you can see the lake we're camped at.

This guy was kicking it in the vicinity too.

And now we start wandering around. There are lakes and rivers EVERYWHERE here, one after another, it's just ridiculous. Viviane and Prusik again.