The next morning, Jo woke up early to try to spot wildlife, while I slept in. He found a moose mama with her calf, but he didn't get a picture because he didn't have the camera on him.
We knew that it would be a strenuous day. We weren't hiking for as long as we had the day before, but according to the map, this would be the steepest and most uphill that we would face. Our destination was Goose Lake, but we had to hike up a mountain before we could get there. So, we got started.
Before we hit the trail, we had talked to a ranger about the condition of the trail. He had warned us that there would be a large amount of downed trees on the trail due to the massive pine beetle kills, and he sure wasn't kidding. This is just one example of what the trail was like; downed trees everywhere. We made a lot of detours.
The trail was breathtakingly lovely. It took us through large fields of tall wildflowers. We were literally waist-deep in flowers. The bees and butterflies were out in force, enjoying the blooms even more than we were. It was sososo beautiful.
The one bad thing about the trail is that it tapered off to nowhere, leaving us to make a best guess as to where we were supposed to be heading. Jo was great, as always, and scouted out ahead to try to see if he could pick up the trail farther ahead, but that was a no-go. We knew that we had to cross the stream one more time before heading up the side of the mountain, so we picked a spot that looked about right and crossed over, leaving our lovely flowers behind.
Things were no better for us on the other side, as far as finding the trail went. We found several options that could have been the trail, but none of them were clear or well defined at all. Knowing the general direction we were supposed to be heading, we decided to set out and up, and hopefully come across the trail as we hiked up the mountain.
Luckily, our planned worked, and we did in fact come across the trail. It's funny, because the same thing happened on our last backpacking trip. It's very satisfying to be able to read the map well enough to go in the right direction sans trail, and I'm thankful that Jo is such a good navigator. Anyway, we followed it up and up and up, in what turned out to be an extremely steep stretch. We plodded along until we finally made it above treeline. The view from the top was awesome, and so worth it.
This was one of my favorite sights of the trip. "Eagle eye" Jo spotted this herd of elk way off in the distance. There is no way I would have seen them if it weren't for him. See what half of them are doing? Sittin' on the snowbank, cooling off and enjoying the reprieve from the hot day. Heck, if I had had snow handy, I probably would have laid down on it as well. They had the right idea.
At this point we were hiking along the ridge, gaining some elevation but not as quickly as what we had just done. We had a good view of what was below us. We spotted a pair of moose, along with an elk, in a meadow below us, and stopped to take a picture of the trio. I took the camera to get a bit closer while Jo layed under a shady tree and relaxed. The moose were standing up when we first spotted them, but soon decided that it was best to go ahead and lay down to enjoy the day. The lady moose on the right eventually got up and sauntered over to the small pool of water and plopped herself right down in it. It was really cute.
Here's Jo relaxing under that shady tree I mentioned.
We still had a decent amount of uphill to do before we actually crossed the ridge and started going downhill, so we got going. We were happy to see this sight: the cairn at the top, signaling a nice downhill break.
Finally! We had made it to the top! This was as high as we would get. It wasn't anything too crazy; I think about 12,700 ft in elevation.
But, still, we felt triumphant.
As I had mentioned, we had a nice downhill break at this point. Our first destination was Little Goose Lake. From here, it sure does look little, doesn't it? We were hot and hungry, and were very excited to get down to the water so we could take a little break and have lunch.
It didn't take us too long to get down there. It was a lovely little alpine lake, and the perfect spot to have some peanut butter bagel sandwiches.
And to take a quick nap.
After refueling, we left Little Goose for our last destination, Goose Lake. This is where we were going to camp for the night, and it was only about a mile away. We had a little extra incentive to get there. Not only was the pack coming off our backs, but Jo and I had decided that we needed to cool down by going for a swim in the icy water. Little Goose had made it look so inviting, we couldn't really resist.
We hiked on through the alpine, which was lovely. The alpine is such an interesting place because it is both extremely delicate and amazingly hardy. It boggles my mind when I think of the adaptations the plants and animals that live there have developed to deal with the short growing season and harsh environments. Many of the plants up there can actually grow under the snow, in order to get a jump on spring. And some of the animals, such as the pika, actually make their own hay and store it so they can have food in the winter. Amazing.
Here's another example of an animal adapting to the alpine. No trees to nest in? No problem. Jo found this little baby bird in a shallow nest in the ground when he almost stepped on its mother, who must have been protecting it. We quickly moved away after taking a quick picture so the momma could come right back.
Goose Lake was getting closer...
And at about 5:00, we made it to our home for the night. We were the only ones there.
We set up camp in a bunch of willow close to the lake. After ditching our packs, we grabbed a few essentials and did what I had been waiting to do since Little Goose Lake; went for a swim! The water was breathtakingly cold, and although it felt like torture getting in, it felt amazing once we were fully submerged. It was the perfect way to cool off and get rid of the layer of grime we had accumulated over the past few days.
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