Lars at the trailhead. Only 6 miles - how hard could it be?
One of really complicated bits of doing this hike is getting a decent map. In Washington, Green Trails maps cover the entire state. But they only cover Oregon west of the Cascades, and there aren't any easily readily available printed maps of the eastern 2/3 of the state. (You can get USGS maps on-line, if you have a large-format printer accessible.)
I found a map on line, a "Geo-Graphics" map of the Eagle Cap Wilderness, out of print but fairly readily available, and figured I had that part of the preparation licked. But... the map, at about 28" x 40" is in such tiny print that it's unreadable to me, even with my high-magnification reading glasses. Which gives you an idea of the size of the Wilderness.
No problem, I thought, I'd take my map to Kinko's, and photocopy the important parts, zoomed in. But Kinko's won't let you photocopy copywrited stuff like maps.
So... I ended up downloading the salient maps from the USGS site, and cropping and printing them, zoomed in, on a color printer at work. A last bit of petty thievery.
Saturday, Aug 1, 2015. The prologue.
I met Lars around 1:00, and we drove to Walla Walla. He realized that he'd fogotten his fishing gear, so we stopped at the WalMart outside of town for some replacement gear, then to my mom's house. We had dinner at The Stone Hut.
Sunday, Aug 2, 2015. Day one.
We got up early – 5:30 - and headed out. We stopped by the only 7-11 in town for coffee creamers & breakfast stuff, and headed down the road to Wallowa Lake. On the way, Lars recognized the put-in of a canoe trip he'd done a few years before.
Wallowa Lake is quite a beautiful place, a very popular camping and hiking spot. The parking area was pretty full. We hit the trail around 9:30.
It was a hard day, grinding steadily uphill in the heat, ascending 3500 feet up to Aneroid Lake. We passed 20-30 people on the trail heading out, including two strings of horses, but when we got to the lake, we had it to ourselves. The benefits of avoiding the weekend, I guess.
At the lake, this golden eagle was feasting on leftovers from the weekend fishermen.
After we found the nicest tent site in the area, Lars pulled out his fishing gear to try his luck, and I took off down the trail a bit. My maps suggested that there was some sort of tunnel system a mile or so up the trail, but I never did find it. I did see some prairie dogs (I think, or very skinny marmots), and enjoyed the boyancy of hiking without a pack.
On my return to the lake, I saw a couple of deer browsing, remarkably unafraid of me.
One big surprise to me was that there are about a dozen cabins tucked back there behind the camping area. The area seems surprisingly developed for being so far from a road; I wonder if they were built decades ago when there was still a road up here>
Dinner, cooked by Lars, then some quality time in the tent with some Edward Abbee, then sleep.
Monday, Aug 3, 2015. Day two.
Breakfast, and packing up our gear, and heading out. We hiked up over Tenderfoot Pass, then Polaris Pass; a pretty amazing experience. It just got more and more alpine, the further up we went.
For a while we hiked along a bunch of what looked like crickets, just hopping around in the dirt.
Your faithful scribe. Note the wad of maps and trail info tucked into my thigh pocket.
I wonder how long this tree has lived?
Polaris Pass was truely a mind-blowing vista, one that I couldn't get a photo to do justice of. I tried taking a video, but even that paled next to the experience of the place.
The descent was mind-numbing – a nearly endless series of switchbacks. Some drizzle right before crossing over the W. Fork of the Wallowa River. Surprised by the crowd at Frazier Lake – turned out to be a scout troop.
Tuesday, Aug 4, 2015. Day Three.
We left Frazier Lake, and hiked up the long, gentle valley that leads to Glacier Lake, which was maybe one of the most beautiful sites of the trip. A more careful trip planner would have put an overnight here, rather than at Frazier Lake.There was only one tent here that we saw.
I can't get enough of bees on flowers.
Over Glacier pass, down into the Lakes Basin. Ended up at Horseshoe Lake, which is lower elevation, and notably less alpine-feeling than Moccasin Lake or Glacier. Lars fished, and I ended up hiking / scrambling around the lake, which took a lot longer than I’d expected.
My stove stopped working properly, and we spent a good hour or so cleaning out the jets with the little stove first-aid kit I've been packing along all this time. Eventually we got it working, to my great relief.
There was a heavy rain in the night. Fortunately, our tents were up to the job.
Horseshoe Lake, the morning after the rain. We swam out to the little island - chilly, but nice to clean off the sticky sweat.
Wednesday, Aug 5, 2015. Day Four.
We decided to keep our camp at Horseshoe Lake, and did a day-hike up to Razz Lake, which was pretty beautiful. Ran into a couple of guys who’d hiked/scrambled over from Ice Lake, where they’d climbed The Matterhorn, heading over to Mirror Lake to tag Eagle Cap. Ah, youth!
Thursday, Aug 6, 2015. Day Five.
The hike out – 9.5 really easy miles. Having my pack straps adjusted properly helps, as does going downhill in cool weather. After the last four days, it's really strange to be able to hike so far without being in danger of breaking a sweat.
It was odd running into so many people – two strings of horses, a boy scout troop, more and more families. Aside from the scout troop at Frazier Lake, we saw one or two people an hour, max. Finally the trailhead. Then, the change of clothes, stick all the sweaty, dusty gear in the trunk, and head out to Terminal Gravity in Enterprise for a well-earned beer.
Then, on down the road, back to Walla Walla for lunch at The Iceburg (a tradition!) and then on down the road to the highway, to the freeways, and back to Seattle.
One of the things that had me feeling weird, I think, after I got home, is that for the last few days I’d only seen people with shared intentions – hanging out in the wilderness for the love of it. Then, back to civilization, with everyone at cross-purposes.