Blackmare Lake July 2016 - Days 3 and 4

On Sunday, I wanted to have a day of rest to prepare myself for the solo trip I would undertake the first week of August. No one was coming up to Blackmare Lake on a Sunday if they hadn’t on a Saturday so we most likely would have the lake to ourselves all day.

I slept in as long as I could, luxuriating in the tent until I was driven out by the heat of the sun. Then I spent some time looking at the lake. Fish were feeding. I could see the splashes made as their heads briefly breached the surface of the water to eat. I walked down the shore to a spot where they were feeding closer to the land and I could see them.

Small, silvery fish with red fins. Smaller brown ones. Size was hard to determine because the water was wind blown into wavelets, distorting my view. It was easier to see them before they broke the surface. After they ate a bite, they would practically disappear in the ripples.

I stood and breathed and watched the water and its inhabitants. A quiet and peaceful morning sunlight bathed my face and warmed my feet in their black shoes. After a time, I moved back towards our campsite and found a rock to sit on overlooking the lake. There, I found even smaller fish, a well-camouflaged brown, darting around the roots of submerged trees.

Ambrose and I talked about various aspects of my solo trip. What I should take, and shouldn’t take. My sleeping pad got put on the list of not being taken, because it’s been losing air by the morning at a rate that is borderline unsafe. So I’ll be taking Ambrose’s sleeping pad, which is actually a pad that I won at the last Backpacker Get Out More tour we attended.

I asked him if he had confidence in my ability to do the trek. He said that he did. I was pretty sure the trip would go well, but the first day was going to be over 15 miles. That number was just a little intimidating, and I spent a lot of the rest of the day thinking about the trip and how I was going to do it.

In the afternoon, I took a dip in the lake. The water was warmer than the water at Everly. I was able to get into the water fully and swim around a bit. The idea was to cool me off enough that I could spend some time in the tent as it baked in the sun. And it worked. I enjoyed drying and warming up in the hot tent.

I also read a lot, moving from shade to shade, sometimes sitting with Ambrose and sometimes on my own. It was a nice quiet day. I did end up taking one picture in the evening.

The man and the mountain.

The next day, we got up by 6 and were on our way by 7. We ate breakfast on the move rather than in the tent. And we agreed that we would both make our own ways, at our own speeds back to the car. I would get a chance to zoom and Ambrose could take his time.

Getting packed up in the morning. I'm sitting on Ambrose's sleeping pad while I get all my stuff ready to go. 

Ambrose and Blackmare Lake. 

I let him have the camera again - he's getting pretty good at using it. 

It’s not a long distance from Blackmare lake to Kennally Creek Campground, but the part of the hike that is on unmaintained trails has extremely steep sections, both up and down. I was mindful of the nature of the trail as I began. I held myself back from full zoom speed as I picked my way down from Blackmare to the crossing of the outlet of the second lake, which was again complicated by a large tree fallen across the stream.

Goodbye Blackmare campsite!

This tree and stream combination was just as annoying to get across in the other direction. 

I managed to get past the sketchy section where we usually get lost on the way in and find the no trail again.

Then I got to head up. My calves protested the movement, especially because it was unrelenting. There was no end to the uphill in sight as I switchbacked up and up and up. I finally got to the steep rocky section that always scares me on the way down and made sure each step was on solid enough rock to keep on going.

I'm not lost. This is a victory. 

This trail just won't stop going UP!

I made it to the lake before 8 am and took a few minutes to sit and finish my breakfast bar. Then I headed on, more uphill to go, to the section where I had gotten lost the last time I traversed it by myself. I took a great deal of care to continue following the no trail’s cairn markers this time and avoided getting lost. I got to the top of the ridge before 9 and started down. I made it up in 20 minutes, so I figured I could get down in 10 or so.

The second lake at last - time for a break from the steep uphill. 

The second lake's glassy surface in the morning light. 

An excellent place for a short break. 

I actually got a little bit lost going down the ridge, but I kept to the general direction and rejoined the no trail before getting too far off course. The steepness of the trail prevented me from going full speed, but I moved at a good pace for the terrain. My mismatched trekking poles held me up as well as a matched pair would have, though I still didn’t like the foam grip.

More uphill? 

At least the trail doesn't go straight up those rocks. 

Already time to head down the ridge to the trail again. 

I got to the sign 11 minutes before 9 and took a moment to celebrate. And then I shot off down the trail, because I needed to practice my zoom and I had a chance to get to the trailhead before 10 am. A slim one, perhaps, but a chance.

Woo! I'm at the sign!

I was more prepared for the trail this time, having just hiked it a few days earlier. I recognized where I caught up to Ambrose, and, of course, the huckleberries were still ripe. I exerted a mighty discipline and only picked and ate two of them while I walked. One from the left side of the trail and one from the right. To be fair.

Thank goodness the trail doesn't go through those tangles. 

As I hiked on, full zoom speed ahead, I came around a corner and a man said hello.

I jumped a bit because I hadn’t noticed him in my hurry. I said that he startled me and he said that’s why he said something. I was past him before he finished speaking.

Full speed past the huckleberries. 

I knew that I had to make it to the 2 mile junction by no later than 9:25 to have a chance to get to the trailhead by 10. I reached it by 9:21.

Stream crossing - almost at the 2 mile mark. 

2 miles to Kennally Creek - how fast can I go? 

Time to go full on zoom. No time for stopping, no time for many pictures. Only time to put one foot in front of the other, in the safest and most fun way possible, of course.

I reached the 1 mile sign at 9:39, and I knew I could make that last mile in under 17 minutes. So I kept my pace steady, but didn’t push so hard that I might injure my feet with blisters.

Go time. 

Just 1 more mile!

I reached the trailhead at 9:55. Now I’ve got a new record to beat for the way up to Blackmare Lake. I figure if I can make it down in less than 3 hours, then I should be able to make it up in less than 4.5.

One last stream crossing - luxuriously over a bridge. 

Okay, okay, not much more uphill after this. 

Trailhead!

I left my pack on a picnic table near the trailhead and went to get the car. Someone had written “Move Your Car” in the dust on our trunk, but there was no one around to explain why they had written such a thing. There were no signs indicating that it was a bad place to park either. So I let it go with a shrug.

There were some people still at the campsite, children running around and playing, a fire burning. I mostly ignored them and got myself ready to take a river bath - after I finished off my water bladder.

Picnic table view. 

The river water was much colder than the water at Blackmare Lake. I couldn’t bring myself to fully submerge, but rather splashed the water over my upper body while standing in the cold water. I managed not to shriek at the cold water, because I didn’t want to draw the attention of the campers. I went in wearing my bra and underwear, but I wasn’t planning on wearing the wet ones when I put on my clean clothes. I needed a few moments to change, unobserved.

After I changed, I came back to find that a truck had settled in front of the bathroom. Someone was servicing it, and I had to wait until they were finished before I could use it. Or so I thought. Maybe if I’d gone up and asked, they would have let me use it, but I wasn’t in desperate straits, so I waited. I mean, I was waiting for Ambrose, too. Might as well wait for the toilet.

And, since I didn’t have access to a toilet, or a place that allowed for some guaranteed privacy for urination, I also held off on drinking the coconut water that was waiting for me in the car.

Ambrose had been consistently coming in at one and a half times my time, so I didn’t really expect him to arrive before 11:30. But that time came and passed and there was no sign of him. The toilet became available around noon and I drank a coconut water to help alleviate both my thirst and hunger. We were supposed to be lunching in Donnelly at the pizza place, so I didn’t want to snack too much and ruin my appetite.

A bird near the trailhead sign, keeping me somewhat occupied. 

I wrote my fiction words for the day and then spent most of my waiting time reading. I moved from spot to spot, finding shade, sometimes standing, sometimes sitting. Close to 1, I walked up the trail a bit to see if I could catch sight of him. Nothing, nothing, nothing.

I began to prepare myself for a rescue mission. He might have gotten lost. He might have gotten injured. I thought about what might have happened to him and what I would need to do to get him out of the wilderness. I’d have to put my nasty, damp hiking clothes back on. Load my pack with coconut water. Probably take the phone in case I might be able to get a signal once I reached Ambrose.

1 came and went. I used the bathroom one more time. And then I decided that I would give him until I finished one more chapter in my book.

I was on the last paragraph when he came walking up at 1:25. I went over and took his picture to record the time. And then I asked him what was wrong. His knee was bugging him. He was surprised that I knew something was wrong, but it was easy to deduce. He took more than twice as long as I did to get out and he was almost limping when he finally walked up.

He made it. Slow and steady, taking care of his knee, but he made it. 

We drove out as soon as he had a chance to change, looking forward to those Donnelly burgers. We chatted while I drove, but not for very long. We were both quite hungry and decided it would be better to be quiet than to start arguing over nothing. He had also seen the man that I had. Ambrose said the man was planning a day hike to Blackmare Lake.

Our bad luck with food continued when we reached Donnelly and found the pizza place was closed due to a water issue. So we drove on to Cascade, hoping that the internet was back up. It was, and we finally got our lunch before making the long drive back to Boise.

Blackmare Lake July 2016 - Day 2

We woke ourselves up with the help of the camera’s alarm. I had managed to forget the altimeter/barometer with its alarm function so we tried the camera. It worked well enough if we kept it out of the case and near our heads. But it has no snooze function and will not repeat itself if you happen to miss its subtle chime.

Today’s plan was to get to Blackmare as quickly as possible, and, hopefully, without getting lost. But the first order of business was breakfast. The best dessert breakfast. Bananas Foster. Warm and sweet and banana-y. Perfect. I definitely want that breakfast again.

While we packed up, our neighbors emerged from their tent and we chatted. One of them was a hunter, planning to go to Blackmare Lake to check out its potential for hunting. The other seemed more like a backpacker. He had gotten about 40 miles onto a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail before an injury sidelined him.

Once I had the tent packed into its bag, I brought it over to them so they could feel the lightness of it. The expressions on their faces once they felt the less than 1 pound heft in their hands was priceless. I know I didn’t show the tent off well for them with my pitch, but I made it up by showing off the weight.

Heading out.

We headed out at about 8:15 and managed to cross the first stream without taking our boots off. And, at that point, I was off. I worked my way up to zoom speed even with the heavy burden of the food on my back.

Crossing the stream.

Again, the uphill sections seemed to last longer than I remembered. But, before too long, I came across a section full of huckleberry bushes. And, for once, the berries were purple and blue. I had a brief internal war. Did I hike on or did I stop to gather?

Has this section always been so uphill?

Wait a minute, are those...? 

Huckleberries!

The war didn’t last that long. I dropped my pack and pulled out the titanium cooking pot. I had a big grin on my face as I plucked the berries. Even the sight of the red side of the purple berries couldn’t stop me. So they’d be a little sour, I like sour.

It wasn’t long before Ambrose hiked up on me. I told him to go on while I kept on picking. I could have stayed there a long time. There were so many berries! But I settled for about a cup and then I hiked on to catch up with Ambrose.

Yum yum!

It took me longer than I thought it would to catch him. When I saw him, I started making sounds like a shark attack was coming. “Dun-nuh! Dun-nuh! Dun-nuh, dun-nuh, da-nuh, da-nuh, da-nuh.”

When I reached him, I grabbed him in a big hug and then kept zooming along.

And before too long I got to the Blackmare No Trail sign and settled down to wait for Ambrose and apply some bug juice. The mosquitoes were starting to stir, and I was not in the mood to get more bites like the Everly trip.

Ambrose walked up and took a break of his own at the sign. A large bird walked across the no trail far overhead and I had to point it out to Ambrose. Unfortunately, that meant he had to stand up, but it did get us going. And I was eager to start the first big climb of the day.

Ambrose at the no trail sign. 

The no trail seemed to be easier than in prior years. I hiked up without stopping in about 20 minutes and settled down to wait for Ambrose to catch up. We were going to stay pretty close together on this next leg of the journey.

Steep, yes, but not so bad. 

The top already? 

View from the top of the ridge (okay, almost the top). 

I led the way down around the ridge and then through the rocky section. I walked along, spotted the trail, and then waited for Ambrose. Then I did it all again. We were both moving at a good pace through this flatter section.

A downed tree on the trail coming around the ridge. 

This is trail. There's cairns and everything. 

Ambrose approached the next saddle. 

And then, we moved uphill to another gentle ridge where Ambrose took pictures of me against the backdrop of the valley below. I saw more huckleberry bushes as we hiked, but none of them were ripe.

I let Ambrose have the camera again. 

Then we picked our way down around fallen trees and over yet more rocks. Before long, we reached the rocky traverse that led to the first unnamed lake. I continued to lead the way and bounded down to see the water. We’ve never stopped at that lake; it’s always looked too boggy for camping, but it is lovely. Maybe next year we can make that our first night’s stop.

Another new downed tree. 

After this flat spot, we have to go down again. 

Ambrose coming down to another ridge traverse. 

On down to the second lake where we took our lunch break. We sat together against a partly burned log in the shade. I tried a Bonk Breaker bar, peanut butter and jelly flavor. The taste wasn’t too bad, but the texture was very dry.

First view of the first lake. 

Another view of the first lake. 

We headed on to the next section with a good will. Ambrose led the way around the lake and down the trail to the very steep rocky section. This section always make me nervous, but I found myself feeling more confident on it. And, although I intended to have him remain in the lead, he was going very slowly and I went around him so I could get through it faster.

Lunch spot!

Going around the second lake. 

We're almost all the way around the second lake. 

After that section, the trail continued to be very steep. We had to detour around another fallen tree blocking the trail, and I was very conscious of each step I took. I didn’t want to have another fall.

Ambrose going down the steep rocky section. 

I passed Ambrose on the steep rocks - with safety fun. 

I love these flowers. 

 Ambrose took the lead when we broke out onto the meadow and found the way down to the trickiest part of the trail. I was expecting there to be plenty of green flags to lead us through it. I’d left plenty of them, to an extent that I thought was perhaps a little excessive last year. But other than the one in the tree at the top of the meadow, there were none to be seen as we descended.

And even though I had the thought that we needed to go straight instead of turning left, we turned left, because that’s the way the trail seemed to be going.

We started to get ourselves lost.

And then Ambrose called it, before we’d hiked more than 5 minutes in the wrong direction. We turned upstream and went hunting for the trail. I was feeling a bit moody at our getting lost again.

Ambrose found a few of my flags on the ground, but I was sure someone had to have taken them down. Someone who doesn’t want other people to get to Blackmare Lake.

We joined the trail after a minimum of fuss and discovered that a huge tree had fallen along the stream. We would have to cross both the log and the stream. Quite an inconvenient direction for it to fall.

The trail is past this tree. And this stream. Which are inconveniently arranged with regards to each other and the trail. 

I clambered on top of the log and then went into a low squat to place my feet down onto the ground. Ambrose couldn’t mimic my movements, so he had to figure out a different way down. And then we knew we were on the trail. It was only a matter of time before we made it to Blackmare Lake.

There were no more big surprises on the trail. It was still a steep and bushy traverse up high through a bowl of rock. I waited for Ambrose at the place where two logs cross a ledge of rock. He’s fallen there before, and I wanted to be on hand for help and advice.

Ambrose making his way through the brushy trail.

I'm almost to the lake. 

I'm almost to the lake? 

After he made it safely up that puzzle, I left him behind and zipped up the trail to the lake. Even Ambrose managed to reach the lake by a quarter to 3, the fastest we’ve ever gotten there. The campsite at the end of the trail was empty and we settled in to enjoy the solitude and appreciate the fruits of our efforts.

It was nice not to have to rush to set up the tent and make dinner. We took our time. And, when I finally got around to pitching the tent, I made a great pitch.

The campsite is empty!

Look at that great pitch!

Good to see you, Blackmare Lake.