We left from the Day-Use area at the Point Campground. By the time we got the kayak inflated and loaded everything we needed for this day-long adventure, it was after 8:00. But it's still chilly enough that Denisa is wearing her jacket.
The water of Redfish Lake is a glorious blue-green and perfectly clear. We have heard that the lake can get windy in the afternoon, but it is just beautiful this morning.
After an hour of rowing, the end of the lake--and the beginning of the Sawtooth mountains--comes into view.
There are actually several ways to travel the first four miles of this trail. We could have hiked it from the trail head close to the lodge, or there is a shuttle boat that will transport hikers across the lake. We were actually passed by three different shuttle boats as we kayaked this morning. But that ride would have cost us $34, and we would have to be on a schedule to make it back for the return shuttle. We like "free" better, so we opted to kayak ourselves. After our beautiful kayak trip this morning, we thought we made the right decision as we landed close to the shuttle dock on the far side of the lake.
We tied up the boat on the beach, and made the transition from kayakers to hikers. We had to dry off our feet and change from boat shoes into hiking boots. We exchanged our life jackets for back packs, and we were off for part 2 of our adventure today.
The map below helps to explain our mission of the day. Instead of hiking the red trail line beside Redfish Lake, we kayaked it. Now we are at the red star, heading on the Redfish Creek trail all the way to Alpine Lake. Depending on how we feel, we might even go as far as Baron Divide overlooking Baron Lakes.
We fell in love with this hike because we immediately had views of some beautiful mountains.
We were hiking in a valley with those jagged-topped Sawtooths to our left and to our right.
We wouldn't want to get bored with all those jagged mountain peaks, so a couple miles later the trail ran through a huge boulder field. You can see Mark to the left, and we're guessing this little boulder is way bigger than our motor home.
In packing everything we would need for our kayak trip and for an all-day hike, we managed to leave our hiking poles in the car. So Mark spent the first several miles shopping for just the right fallen branches for a couple of hiking sticks. He spent the rest of the hike smoothing out the handles and breaking off any barbs. By this point of the day, he has crafted us two sturdy (yet light) walking sticks.
This well-traveled trail doesn't usually see much wildlife. But we found several ptarmigan moving through the trees. This time of the year they are outfitted in their feathers that blend nicely with the tree bark. In a few months their feathers will be completely white to camouflage them in the snow.
This first section is called the Redfish Creek Trail, as it meandered along a clear-water creek in this valley surrounded by mountains.
Up to this point, we had hiked in a nice combination of forest with a few openings so we could see the changing view of the mountains. Around 1:00, we stepped out of the forest into a huge open meadow with even more mountain views.
That's when we started a steep incline, as we could see mountains to our right . . .
and our left. We don't remember the last time we have had a hike with such constantly changing mountain views. We have indeed wandered our way into another of God's wonders!
You can usually tell when the trail gets steeper and Denisa needs more stops to catch her breath. That's when more flower pictures start, as it's a good excuse to stop and take pictures.
Mountains make a really nice backdrop for some very-late-in-the-year wildflowers.
When we see jagged topped peaks like this, it's pretty easy to see why this range was named the Sawtooth Mountains.
We have hiked up high enough that we can see eye-to-eye with the tops of peaks now.
It's a little after 2:00 when we finally make it to our first destination of the day. Mark decides he needs a little nap at Alpine Lake after our lunch break.
Then he's out exploring the marshy side of the lake, where one must hop from log to log to get close to the water.
While he's log-hopping, Denisa has found a new wildflower that loves this marshy wetland.
We played long enough at Alpine Lake for the clouds to lift so we could take a sunny picture with the turquoise water and the blue sky.
Then we have a decision to make. We've made it to our original destination, but we've heard great things about the next couple miles of this trail. If we turn around right now, we can be back to our kayak in just seven miles. But if we keep going, we have the chance to see another beautiful mountain lake,
more wildflowers with different mountain backdrops,
and another steep climb with more great views.
Well, it's pretty obvious to see what we chose to do. We arrived at the Baron Divide at around 4:00, and this was our picnic spot overlook. We're burning some serious calories today, so we packed lots of food!
This is the favorite picture of the day, with Mark sitting on that boulder overlooking the turquoise waters of Baron Lakes. Have we mentioned how blessed we are to get to wander such beautiful wonders?
Perched up on this ridge called Baron's Divide, we could also look down the mountain-side that we had just climbed up. What a beautiful place!
According to our GPS, we have hiked around 9 miles so far, and it's a long ways back to the kayak. But we have promised our legs that it's all down-hill from here as we started the long journey down.
We're really seeing the first indicators of autumn, as the bushes along the trail are turning to shades of red and orange. It was about here--a little over a half-mile down the trail that Mark reached for the binoculars and realized they were no longer in the side pocket of his backpack. Oh no!
He had used the binoculars to look for climbers on some of the mountain faces, so we know we had them earlier today. But we have taken off our packs several times since then. One of them was at the very top of Baron's Divide. Could the binoculars have fallen out there? There's only one way to know for sure. So even though Mark had made a promise to his legs, he headed up the hiking trail to the top once again. Denisa took the easier assignment--heading downhill slowly and looking beside the trail for that black binocular case. Mark took this selfie on his second trip up to Baron's Divide. As you might guess from the expression, he didn't find the binoculars at the top.
We kept our eyes peeled for the binoculars along the trail, and asked everyone we met on the trail if they had seen it. At least it gave us something to do on this very long hike down. Our trip back was a little sad as we hiked past the point where we used them this morning. Now we knew we wouldn't be finding them on the trail, and it left us with a sad ending to our epic hike. We splurged to buy some good binoculars when we went to South Africa on safari several years ago, and we will miss them.
The rising sun had lit up east-facing mountains on our hike into the valley this morning. Now the setting sun is lighting up the west-facing mountains on our hike out this evening.
We knew we were going to be stretching daylight, but the extra hike to the top to look for the binoculars cost us some extra time (and energy). By the time we finished our 18 mile hike, only the very tops of the mountains were still in the sunlight.
We were definitely the last ones leaving the area as the last boat shuttle left long ago. The deer must have though it was safe to come out this evening, as we saw several fawn near the lake.
The doe was watching us, still surprised at these late evening hikers who almost didn't have enough energy to lift a camera to take another picture.
As we transitioned from hiking boots back to boat shoes and stowed our backpacks on the boat, we saw the sun setting behind us. We still had an hour's kayak trip back to the car in the twilight that turned to complete darkness. The Sawtooth Mountains National Recreation Area is a dark sky park, and we can confirm that it is very dark on the lake. We were glad for a campfire on the beach that helped guide us back to the area where we started 13 hours ago.
It was a great hike with wonderful views of these beautiful Sawtooth Mountains the entire 18 miles of hiking, and 7 more miles of kayaking.
A good test of a hike is whether we would do it again, and we definitely would. Just not tomorrow--we need a little rest.
Whew.... what energy you two have.
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