Comments
No comments posted yet.
-
7773 Hits
-
72.08% Score
-
2 Votes
Page Type:
|
Trip Report |
|---|---|
Lat/Lon:
|
48.13207°N / 120.89905°W |
Date Climbed/Hiked:
|
Dec 31, 1969 |
Activities:
|
Hiking |
Season:
|
Summer |
GETTING THERE
The Hike
The next part of the trail is a 3.1 mile hike with 1900 ft increase in elevation. Still nothing too strenous. The trail varies from here. Some parts are wide enough to walk side by side and chat with you buddy. Then some parts are very narrow with some thick stuff to barge through. Still nothing too hard. As you walk about 1.5 miles on this leg the woods will give way to some small meadows. it looks like a perfect place to see a black bear, as there is plenty of bear sign along the trail. If you have a good map and good navigation skills you will find yourself in-between Helps ridge on the east and the beginning of another peak on the west, I don't know the name of it. (I recommend the Green trails Maps #113). You will also have great views of Red Mt.
The Turn Off to the Lake
Now as your hiking along you will probably start to think you have walked far enough and should be at the Massie lake trail. And you will probably see a old trail on your left that doesn’t look like it gets used much. Its has no signs to tell you what trail it is but it is the Massie lake trail. Don’t keep walking, if you do you will come to another split in the trail. One leads to the base of Red mountain, the other is trail 1550A. We made this mistake and walked down 1550A a little ways thinking it may be Massie lake trail. This just wasted time and precious energy that could have been used for the real Massie lake trail. So we backtracked and we assessed that by our walking pace and distance on the map( .5 miles) that the smaller unmarked trail from earlier was Massie lake trail or trail 1504 as the map shows.
I don’t have any pictures of the assent up because I was mostly too tired to do anything but drink water.
When the trail starts you will walk about a 10th of a mile before reaching the Chiwawa river. I would recommend taking a lengthy break here and hydrating and eating something. There is plenty of drift wood that is piled up that can be used for crossing. Once on the other side we found were the trail picked up. Some parts of the trail look like game trails. But it is the trail. The fist 10 minutes of this section are pretty easy. Then you will quickly find yourself going almost vertical for what seems like forever. I won’t go on about how steep it is and how much it sucks. But when you start to loose faith in yourself, your physic, your map, and when your hiking buddy says how much he hates you, then there is only about 1 hour of vertical left. Just tough it out and stay with the trail. Some parts get very narrow and thick, but stick with it. It is worth it. We were on the brink of stopping because we thought that we were on the wrong trail. But we finally made it.
Victory!!!!!!!!!!!
We finally arrived at the lake and it was beautiful. My only regret is that I didn’t pack a fishing pole. The water is crystal clear and loaded with trout. I don’t know what kind of trout. There are two main camp sites here with fire pits and there is plenty of wood around the lake for burning. We made camp and passed out. The next morning the mosquitos were pretty annoying but the bug spray does work for them. We only had the weekend away from work so we had to head back about 10 am. I would like to have stayed longer and scrambled up some of the mountains surrounding the lake for some Awsome views. Maybe next suummer.