Monday, June 2, 2014

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!

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