Looking through the list of
hikes our ranger friend discussed with me yesterday, it seemed as though hiking
to Surprise Lake and Amphitheater Lake (separated by a mere .3 mi.) seemed like
the way to go. I missed the word
STRENUOUS in the pamphlet describing a multitude of hikes including words like
EASY, MODERATE and even MODERATE- STRENUOUS. I missed STRENUOUS.
The good news is that there was one hike labeled VERY STREUOUS.
Get your protractor out and figure the angle of this bad boy. The photo has not been altered in any way. Rocks have a hard time staying put. Oxygen slides right off the face of the mountain. |
Located just south of Jenny
Lake, Lupine Meadows Trailhead was the jumping off point at 6390 ft above sea
level. An assumption I made that
was correct, is that we would be hiking up hill (mountain). To be more specific, that up would be
about 3,150 feet up. In my mind,
since we have hiked the Grand Canyon a number of times, we would be challenged,
but could handle it and it would serve as a warm up hike for another longer day
to come.
The parking lot was very
crowded for the little traffic we had experienced so far, so we thought we had
picked a really good trail. Off we
went with daypacks on our backs and the thought of catching some Surprise and
Amphitheater Lake fish in a few hours.
There is a little disagreement amongst trail information as to whether
it is 4.9 or 5.05 miles to our destination…details, details. The first mile or so was pretty typical
of a mountain trail. Meandering
through a pine forest, maybe cross a stream or two. Then we started going up. The up didn’t stop for 3 hours. This wasn’t up with meandering through meadows interspersed
in the up…UP! It was so up, that
the switchbacks we are accustomed to with our experience would seem
inconsequential compared to these from the fiery underworld. They were steep, long, and just went on
forEVER. I thought the Grand
Canyon had switchbacks…not like these badboys. I think it was that they were not interrupted with semi-flat
stretches or even gentle incline stretches. They just went up.
Going UP! |
Jackson Lake way back and jenny lake in the foreground and a cute hiker I picked up! |
Sometime after 4:00 in the
afternoon (when most people were off the mountain), we summited or should I say
made it to Surprise Lake. It was a
bit of a surprise in the fact it was really small and had no signs of trout
frolicking about at the water’s surface.
We did relish in the fact we had made it, had a snack, and relaxed
without suffering from hypoxia. We
labored .3 of a mile further to see Amphitheater Lake before heading back down
the Devil’s Trail. It was quite a
bit bigger and very pretty too.
Surprise Lake...surprise, there's no fish! |
Amphitheater Lake...pretty, our word of the day. |
Not to be stranded in the
dark on the mountain, we actually looked forward to going down. In fact, to
entertain ourselves we jogged in places that gravity seemed to take over. In a sense it was like a controlled
fall, just making sure your feet were planted in safe places as you fell. We mostly walked at a pretty fast clip,
which was so refreshing. We did
make acquaintances with two more deer friends. Aside from an occasional jog, we counted the switchbacks for
kicks. There were approximately 20
of the sons of guns, some of which seemed a mile long as it traversed the
mountainside (maybe more like ¼ to ½ a mile in length in places).
Almost down, but still very UP! Overlooking what would have been a better choice of hike and probably had fish. |
We descended in good time (about
an hour faster) and in good spirits until I heard Miki starting to sing how she
wished she could be an Oscar Meyer Weiner.
At that point I felt the lack of oxygen to her brain had caught up with
her, but we were almost back to the parking lot and I had no hyperbaric chamber
handy.
We had made it despite the
odds all the hikers we had passed going up as they went down were probably
betting against our survival. We
poured our tired bodies into the truck and headed for the road back to Colter
Bay. One last show of “What were
you thinking today?” was pronounced upon us by a rather large and stately elk,
just off the gravel road leading away from the trailhead. We stopped for a photo op and he would
not show us any pose other than for his big furry rump…as if to know we were
out of our league today.
It was a good hike, a doable
hike, and the scenery was pretty spectacular (even though I don’t have many
photos of it). Maybe a few other
warm up hikes should have preceded this one…just thinking out loud here.
My Zen from the Road: As we were coming down the mountain, we
noticed someone on one of the dreaded switchbacks heading up our way below
us. We were thinking what all the
others had most likely thought of us as we were heading up. What are they thinking? It was a ranger that was called upon to
check out a climber that had been injured somewhere way above where we had
been. He was hoofing it, covered
in sweat, and still said hi to us.
His day had just begun.
Today we challenged ourselves without really knowing where we were going
and it all worked out. As much as
our challenges are sometimes to us, you can bet there are others out there that
are being challenged far greater.
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