Strawberry Lake Redo

This particular Sunday the weather was predicted to be 60's and rainy.... the day fulfilled those predictions to the tee. We made the decision to head out anyway and go for a smaller, easy trail. Strawberry Lake fit the bill... of course we thought the weather would deter other hikers and we may have the trail primarily to ourselves. Well, sure called that wrong.  The trail head was completely full, 8 or more vehicles including two horse trailers and we managed to run into every single one. 

It was a great mix of groups including families, dirt bikers and a pack train. The first portion of the trail, which is about a mile, is a decent elevation gain with many switch backs.

 At one point a small pack train and some dirt bikers crossed paths... It could have been a less than ideal scenario. In this case tension was little high on the horses (and mules) part but thankfully the equestrians were experienced and the dirt biker were considerate.

As we made it to the point in the trail where we hit piles of snow last time we tried it, it looked like a completely different trail!

The rest of the trip was very mellow and the trail is easy. There's just a small dip that brings you down to the lake.

The lake is stunning, we walked up a bit of the trail that leads to Wildcat lake in order to get a view.

The trail onward was full of very slushy snow and we decided to turn back, Strawberry lake was our goal anyway.

DISTANCE 6.73 mi

ELEVATION GAIN 2700 ft

TOTAL TIME 03:22:23

AVERAGE SPEED 3.71 mph

MOVING TIME 01:48:41

MAX SPEED 8.57 mph

 This is an ideal trail for a novice/beginner hiker or someone with children.

 

Until next time! 

Happy trails and Happy Fourth of July!

Cedar Lake - Swan Valley

6/23/14

Our first back country hike of the season! We were so excited as we scoped out our hike online using topographic maps and trail descriptions. So after some discussion Cedar Lake was decided on, an intermediate 7 mile hike.

Interestingly enough we ended up driving right past our turn, if course there's not even a glimpse of cell phone service down there. Fatty Creek Road is in no way marked from the highway and very easily passed but if you look hard enough you can see a bear warning sign a little ways down the road. From there it doesn't get much better as far as road signage goes, there's no sign until you get a around 6 miles in. Here it finally says FSR 10182 which promptly turns right and becomes FSR 10381, follow that all the way up and you hit the trail head.

 

The trail gets a little adventurous early on with a creek to wade and then some cliffs.

We ended up having to carry our little dog across the creek, he's our newly adopted French Bulldog! 

After about 1.5-2 miles of the trek in you come upon a no name lake, it's a cute lake and the trail took us right down by the shore of it so we could get a good view.

Continuing on we immediately met consistent snow... quickly turning in to very deep snow. Luckily the snow pack was hard enough that we were able to hike over it with ease... so long as we paid close attention not to step on any pockets. The trail was lost but only 1.5-2 miles of forest and mountain was between us and our coveted destination, Cedar Lake. We must keep going!

 Some rest was taken to ensure our smaller companions health and make him more comfortable. We also took time to snack on our power bars, jerky and trail mix which is an essential part of any hike! 

 
He even took a short nap. Now back on the trail...

We looked for a low point in the ridge in front of us an were greeted by a view when we hit the top. So close to the lake now! You can see it as soon as you hit the top although it's still a deceiving distance away.

We found our way down the other side of the mountain and straight to the tip of a rock cliff, while the view was gorgeous we did have to back track a small amount to make it closer to the actual lake shore.

It's still pretty early in the season for these back country hikes so the lake was rather high, not easily accessible and still encased by a ring of ice. Of course this makes it all the more pleasing to look at!

 For the panoramic view of the lake I would highly suggest following this link to get a better look. - Click Here -

However, here is a small glimpse:

 And one more photo of the splendor before I wrap up this trail expedition!

It is like that this trail would be considered intermediate but due to the amount of snow and loss of the trail it ended up being an advanced trek. 

DISTANCE 7.15 mi

ELEVATION GAIN 2182 ft

TOTAL TIME 04:58:43

AVERAGE SPEED 3.15 mph

MOVING TIME 02:16:15

MAX SPEED 7.43 mph 

Lincoln Lake - Glacier National Park

Early June we decided to embark on a little more challenging hike, not difficult but a test of endurance. This hike, in to a gorgeous mountain lake in Glacier National Park, starts off pretty strenuous but it mellows out quickly.

Woke up feeling great, got things done and hit the trail at a leisurely 10:30 am. It's a steep, unrelenting grade for the first 1.6 or so miles, you'll definitely want a trekking pole on this venture. I didn't bring one and coming down that slope on the 14th mile of the day was pretty dang rough.

Once you get to the top of the first part it starts looking more like this, there's so much vegetation in between the trees! 

We crossed over a lot of water, little streams and creeks.

Coming down one switchback there was an oh-so tempting log. We just had to walk out on it. Of course at this point we were going down... uh-oh, we thought.

This seems to be a very good hike to do earlier in the season, there was minimal mud even though it had rained the day before and the bugs were not bad at all either. 

About 2 miles in! Yay. The trail splits off and you can hike over to Fish lake if you really wanted to but we were determined to make it in to secluded Lincoln lake. Having been told it was a trail you would only want to back pack it felt like a challenge to make it a day hike.

Along the way we began to see signs of animal activity... including very fresh bear movement. 

The farther you go, the more looming the mountains are, they just seem to get taller and taller!

Getting closer, 3.6 miles left according to the sign, now we're starting to get excited! Over half way there.

The scenery on the trail just keeps getting better and better. We saw a few robins eggs along the way.

The rest of the hike was pretty mellow terrain wise.


We made it!

I haven't exactly perfected the surround shot but it's still cool!

The way back was tiring but there was some exciting things too... like this log!

Strawberry Lake Trail - Jewel Basin

 We made an early attempt on the Strawberry Lake Trail, not surprisingly we didn't make it... They say the early bird get the worm but I didn't see a dang one?! It was a fun attempt none the less.

We took my car out to the trail head, that was a little interesting on its own because of the road. I have a 1980 diesel Mercedes, it's front-heavy and rear wheel drive so the muddy dips in the road were a bit interesting at times. If you go, take a truck!

We ended up parking about .4 of a mile from the trail head, it seems to be an awfully popular trail! The trail head was packed with vehicles so I'm glad I parked below. Besides that, I really wasn't sure how much farther my car would make it.

Once you get there you come upon a little bridge with a railing on just one side, it goes over a decently sized creek. My height fear kicked in at this point and was like "DANG, girl you 4 feet off the ground! What you thinking?"

Ya, my mental fear voice is always a ghetto chick for some reason... well your guess is as good as mine on that one.

The incline is pretty steep even though there are switchbacks, it's definitely a good work out. We had taken only one pack and it was around 20 pounds, which was a lot of work considering that I did not keep in shape this off season.

A little over a mile in we started hitting imposing piles of snow on the switchbacks that we had to maneuver our way around. We managed some more gracefully than others.

In another mile we hit the end of our path for the day, the snow was piled in huge waves directly over the trail. They were easily 4 foot piles of snow. The way back down was, of course, about 10 times easier than the way up making for a quick out. 

  

It drizzled rain for at least half of our trip but it wasn't enough to deter us from our mission. I think we will wait a month before trying it again, but we will definitely be making to that lake!

4.95 miDistance           02:15:4800:00:43 Pause

27:25 min/miØ Pace               2067 ft2060 f

Happy Trails!