Sean and I headed out again with a great forecast for great weather! It was definitely that- almost a little too hot at times. We knew with the forecast, we wanted to get out for the weekend, so we decided we were going- we just werent too sure where though. Sean had been on a 3 day (Wed-Fri) up in an area called the Enchantments with a retired friend of ours, so it would be a quick turn for him to get back out with me on Saturday morning. I got ahold of him Friday afternoon finally and I said- I dont care where we go- I just maybe want to have a campfire at night. OK I know- lets head to Norse Peak wilderness. Lots of places to camp, and fires are allowed.
So we were set. An important note to make. Sean had borrowed my titanium pot to take on his trip because all his gear is back in Montana. I typically always pack my stove, fuel, and windscreen inside that pot...more on that later.... I decided I wanted to try out one of my smaller packs to take on an overnight trip. This got my weight down to about 17-18# with everything. I used to be nearly double that for an equal trip! The advances in gear the past few years is amazing. Lighter fabrics. Better insulating materials. Better designs. All have led to great reductions in weight. But there is also quite a bit of planning and maybe even some trade-off. The biggest thing to do is to come back from a trip and separate your gear into two piles. One pile- stuff you used. The other pile- stuff you did not use. The stuff you did not use- you need to think about justification on bringing it. Did you not use it because the weather was nice and you didnt need that extra layer? Did you not use that extra layer because you planned poorly- not noting it would be 80* during the day or did the forecast not play out as planned. The other sometimes not as obvious thing to look at is- can you find gear that can pull double duty? Do you need to carry an insulated thermal mug AND a Nalgene water bottle? The Nalgene works just great as a mug at night to make tea in- so no need to carry it....you just saved 8 or 10 ounces. Sometimes the war is about pounds, but battles are won with ounces!!!! LOL Places like REI and the like thrive on selling you every conceivable piece of crap gadget, gidget, or some other unnecessary thing to lug up the hill. To counter that there is an emerging cottage industry of ultralight weight gear manufacturers showing promising gear that is not only very useful but doesnt sacrifice comfort.
So back about the trip. We had the area we were going to head into- not really any solid itinerary of where we had to be or how many miles. The trail up to the "top" to the 1st trail junction- was around 3.6 miles and about 2000 foot elevation gain. Nice trail thru the woods- eventually coming out into the alpine. Near the junction we were overtook by a guy and his two daughters on mules. The area is open to stock and is fairly well used. Some idle chatter led to Sean asking the guy if he has seen much wildlife. His reply was "there's no wildlife in this area, I havent seen much in the past 10 years". Oh wow- ok, thats pretty bad then. Well this was said as I was nearly standing in a pile of coyote scat. LOL
We hiked the remainder up the trail to the junction, took a break, and looked at the map to decide what we wanted to do. We decided we would head over to Goat Lake, thru that basin and onto the PCT at Barnard Saddle.
Me entering Goat Lake basin
Looking down at Goat Lake.
As we cross the Basin, we see tons and tons of animal sign. Tracks and trails everywhere...goats, deer, elk tracks...bear scat...coyote scat. So we jokingly start to say- YEP, no wildlife in this area. Hasnt been anything in here in 10 years now.....We trudged along thru the basin, thru Barnard Saddle, and into Big Crow Basin. At this point we started thinking about where we wanted to camp. We were a tad surprised by how dry it was. Usually its not too hard to find a decent water source up high, but we werent seeing a whole lot. We then decided to press on a mile or two further onto Lake Basin.
I dont have a good picture of it- but we came down from a ridge on the left into the Lake.
Right away we saw these guys....
Yep, no wildlife in this area. We hunted around and found where we wanted to camp.
Then it was time to go stalk the goats!
Got some good pix of this nannie
And her kid
We got busted by this guy and they took off. We were only about 40 feet away
Headed further up to the top of the peak above our camp. We are camped in the trees in the upper right of the lake. You can also make out the ridge we came cross country down to the lake. Its easy going in this area with the trees spaced like they are.
Ive a couple more pix to download- of the Elk. Of course there is no wildlife in this area. None. Sean and I were sitting around, doing a little firewood gathering, and the elk started to bugle. And they were close. So up and off we went to stalk the elk. Sean got really close- like 20 feet close of a couple little dummies, but finally a mature cow came in and busted him. The elk were bugling all night long- sometimes very close to camp. So remember the story about the pot and the stove. Yeah well, I forgot the stove. My new water purification system was running low on salt- so we were in a little bit of a pickle. I had enough water to make it out the next day, but we needed some water for dinner, tea, and stuff. So thankfully as noted we decided to go where we could have fires, because we wound boiling water....
Grog make FIRE!!!!!
A great night of rest and some breakfast, we hit the trail to head out. We headed out a different direction, up to Scout Pass, with plans to get up to the top of Norse Peak. Its an easy walk-up. We had seen the goats grazing their way across the top of the basin over under Norse Peak. Thinking they had continued further past the peak, we didnt think much of it. We met a group of about 8 horse hunters coming in to camp for the 1st week of bow season for elk. We then gained the Pass and headed up the faint trail towards the top of Norse Peak. As we neared the top we heard a good clamor. The herd of goats must have been in the trees on the other side of the Pass and wanted back. Because soon as it was clear- they took off. Some 34 goats now!!!! Yep, no wildlife in this area.
We made it to the top of Norse to the terrible views of Rainier.
We headed down after a brief break at the top and made really good time back to the car. I learned a heavier pack itself isnt always bad, as with it comes a better suspension system. There was a good 4 pound difference in pack weights- but my heavier Dana pack is much more comfortable. Thats part of the game with going light- trying to figure out where the fine line is between taking the weight penalty or being miserable. All in all we did around 15 miles this trip, with some good elevation gain and drop. Found tons of wildlife to watch. Hoping to get out for one more overnight trip, maybe two, and one or two more day hikes!
