up in the sawtooths with my dear friend paul! life is sweet...of course to get here--one of the many mountain ranges in idaho--i ended up flying out of boston, through salt lake city, into haily/sun valley idaho. flying is something i like to avoid, for many reasons, but sometimes it seems worth it.
on the boston end, eben p met me at the bus station and hustled me to a tai restaurant were we met matt and kailynn. after swapping old moc stories--eb and matt were both stalwart alums--and finishing a tasty meal, eb and i continued onto his apartment where he graciously shared enough floor space to roll out a sleeping bag. i also snagged a couple of his mom's famous cookies for a bedtime snack. one could not ask for a better host!
eb had arranged for an early cab so i got up about four o'clock-ish, in time to finish kailynn's curried rice she offered the night before. a short bit later the cab picked me up and whisked me to logan in good time. had i used that time to inspect my carryon luggage, i might have found the old swiss army knife buried and forgotten in my little back pack. if i knew it was there i could have easily transferred it to my checkin duffle and saved it from whatever they do with the thousands of sharp objects they probably find. i told the tsa agent that it would do my heart good if he took it home and used it or gave it to his favorite relative--he smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
having effectively curbed any latent terrorist inclinations i might have, the flights out west went smoothly. and, given the two hours mtn time gave me back, just after noon i was waving at paul waiting to pick me up in haily. flying over the mountains, some well covered in snow, was very pleasing knowing full well that paul would have a hike planned to get us out into them for few days.
sure enough, the plan had us packing that evening for two nights and three days. day one, we would go leisurely up to goat lake out of stanley and set up camp, hang out some, take a swim, the usual 'this is such a beautiful place' stuff. day two, after breakfast, we would summit thompson peak, and then the last day, hike out, maybe in time for a second breakfast at the stanley baking co. & cafe. i got to catch up with paul and his wife renée as we packed. even with the large gap between our visits, it was a joy and the years quickly melted.
at a certain point, our energies also melted and we headed off to bed. the next morning we final-packed, loaded the truck, and drove north. unfortunately, renée was still recovering from a sickness and couldn't go with, but she gave us a wave and wished us luck. the road to stanley took us up and over galena pass, where i had learned to telemark ski, way 'back in the day' when i had come out to be best man at paul's and renée's wedding. i had returned--and skied galena again--a few times, once with kevin when we were heading to alaska and denali. the pass was snowless for the moment, but i could remember the many lines, and envision hundreds more; just a few feet of snow would open up a world of joy.
we pulled into stanley and the cafe and fueled up on their famous pancakes. paul mentioned that a breakfast stop here was the tradition whenever they passed by. i was honored to get in on that. pam and i had actually gotten stuck in stanley when we were hitchhiking home from a visit--again, way 'back in the day'. the baking co. wasn't there in '76, i recall we ate breakfast in the lodge after spending the night there to avoid -52°F outdoors on the roadside.
well fed and back on the road, a few miles west of town we got out to the iron creek campground and the trailhead to enter the sawtooths from the north end. we swapped crocs for hiking shoes, shouldered our packs, and started, one foot in front of the other. hiking out west is not all that different than the trails in the white mtns back east, only it is much much dryer here and instead of all dirt with rocks and roots, there is a good amount of gravel on the footpath.
being dry and gravelly also means the fallen trees don't rot nearly as quickly which makes for lots and lots of grey sticks of all sizes littering the forest. such excess would make our trail crews back home really jealous of all the material for water bars, steps, bridging, shelters, whatever. just when we turned off the main trail and headed toward goat lake, we crossed a three log bridge. paul said each log had been floating in much deeper water back in june. they were a couple of feet above water now.
as we rounded a shoulder coming out of the thicker forest, paul suddenly stopped and whispered, "stone troll...don't wake it or we're in trouble." we took a water and snack brake under its gaze and shot a couple of pictures. looking south--the direction the troll stared out--we started to see the higher peaks.
a bit further along, we came to the next turn off, semi-hidden and going steeply up to goat lake. the path was super gravelly and the slope had clearly burned off at some point. for a long while, you could hear a large amount of rushing water but we didn't get a look at it--goat falls--until passing an outcrop near its top. i imagined there would be some great ice climbing in frozen times.
the closer we got to the lake the more i noticed how hot i was and suggested to paul that we take a swim. he was not at all enthusiastic about diving into 'freezing' cold water, but i figured if i went in, he would join me. it would be good to wash off the sweat we worked up and get clean for dinner. i stripped and dove in. it was heaven, only a bit colder, though if i had to guess not all that different than the atlantic on the maine coast.
the temperature might have been similar, but the view was certainly unique. after i got my boxers back on paul took this shot. the tiny triangle in the center distance is thompson peak, where we would be headed the next day. at 8000 feet plus, the water was snow melt coming down from patches like the ones you can see above the lake. oh, and paul did go in, up to his neck even.
we set up our tent just above the swimming 'hole', and cooked dinner on my new, ultra-lite alcohol stove. after cleaning up, we talked of life well into the evening.
it cooled off quickly when the sun dipped behind the ridge line to the west, but there seemed to be a warm air mass moving up from the south. there were no clouds to clue us in on the direction of those upper winds, but that made for some super star watching. before i crawled into my sleeping bag, the milky way had washed a bright strip across the sky. when i woke up and went to pee a couple of hours later, the lake reflected all that starlight making for quite a show below the feet as well as above the head.
in the morning, i fired up the stove again and boiled water for oatmeal and hot cocoa. we were about done eating when the sun started to hit that western ridge line and i snapped the picture below.
the stanley baking company had great pancakes, but atmosphere like this at breakfast would be hard to beat. yes, that is snow at the water's edge.
speaking of snow and edges, we soon took off around the perimeter of the lake, hiking up the chain of lakes, around and over a few patches of the frozen. most of the snow patches were solid from their top down to rock. this one below, had a nice arched tunnel that the melt had carved out enough to scare paul around it. he stopped and took a shot, intimating that at any moment things were going to collapse and i would be toast.
of course i reminded him that if that did happen he would have to carry me out...he stopped saying anything, but he might have kept worrying.
we circumnavigated one of the lakes by edging along a ledge about 5 meters above the water. i suppose this sort of 'trail' is not for everybody, but it got me excited and kept me focused on something more than the good distance we had left to go. truth be told, i am not all that big a fan of hiking. being out in the western mountains was nice though and with a rock 'climbing' section now and again, i was smiling.
not too much further, a drainage from another lake in the chain made me think of pam's love of moss. a couple hundred yards of thick, soft green, made a lovely path up through the rock. when paul had been by here in june, it had been under more than a few feet of snow. that got me guessing that the high plants only lay exposed for about 4 months, and some of that under water. you have to be hardy to grow up here.
we got to the saddle leading up to thompson peak and paul snapped a picture that showed a few of the lakes over my shoulders. goat lake, where we were camping, is the farthest blue spot to the north. it seemed like a fair distance, and we still had the peak above us to finish.
climbing through some pretty gravely scree, we worked our way up and around the western flank to the southern couloir and scrambled up. i got a nice shot of paul looking up that slot, just under the summit.
topping out, we scouted around the several of the 'false' peaks along the summit spine. looking out to the south, one really gets the idea why this range is called the sawtooths. i respect that pam would never move out here, but i could see myself living near these mountains. skiing and climbing out our backdoor is possible in new england, even fairly decent given our proximity to the white mtns. but here, going outside and playing in the backyard would be like dying and going to heaven. just so i would remember it, paul took a picture of what we were looking over as we settled down to eat lunch at the summit register...
the view definitely put big smiles on our faces! after a multi pitch climb, my expression was a bit weary here--maybe it was a bad hair day. this picture was taken 40 years ago, somewhere out there in that view above, on the finger of fate, a stone spire in the sawtooths. i led one of paul's best friends, steve ollila, up there just so he could take this picture of me--jk. steve died a few years back but we opted out of a memorial climb so that we could actually set the camera and sit together on a summit...
the march back down to goat lake, didn't take as long as coming up--gravity has a way of making that work easier. although it was not just a hop, skip, and a jump, we did make it before dark and were able to cook without headlamps. that night, clouds did start moving in and we got a rain shower or two before breakfast. chocolate milk in our oatmeal fueled us through packing and hiking out--in time to hit the stanley baking co. cafe for 2nd breakfast!
well fed, we got back in the truck but, before driving back over galena pass we stopped at redfish lake to relax in the shallows of the river feeding it. i couldn't have asked for a nicer end to such a wonderful three days.
on the boston end, eben p met me at the bus station and hustled me to a tai restaurant were we met matt and kailynn. after swapping old moc stories--eb and matt were both stalwart alums--and finishing a tasty meal, eb and i continued onto his apartment where he graciously shared enough floor space to roll out a sleeping bag. i also snagged a couple of his mom's famous cookies for a bedtime snack. one could not ask for a better host!
eb had arranged for an early cab so i got up about four o'clock-ish, in time to finish kailynn's curried rice she offered the night before. a short bit later the cab picked me up and whisked me to logan in good time. had i used that time to inspect my carryon luggage, i might have found the old swiss army knife buried and forgotten in my little back pack. if i knew it was there i could have easily transferred it to my checkin duffle and saved it from whatever they do with the thousands of sharp objects they probably find. i told the tsa agent that it would do my heart good if he took it home and used it or gave it to his favorite relative--he smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
having effectively curbed any latent terrorist inclinations i might have, the flights out west went smoothly. and, given the two hours mtn time gave me back, just after noon i was waving at paul waiting to pick me up in haily. flying over the mountains, some well covered in snow, was very pleasing knowing full well that paul would have a hike planned to get us out into them for few days.
sure enough, the plan had us packing that evening for two nights and three days. day one, we would go leisurely up to goat lake out of stanley and set up camp, hang out some, take a swim, the usual 'this is such a beautiful place' stuff. day two, after breakfast, we would summit thompson peak, and then the last day, hike out, maybe in time for a second breakfast at the stanley baking co. & cafe. i got to catch up with paul and his wife renée as we packed. even with the large gap between our visits, it was a joy and the years quickly melted.
at a certain point, our energies also melted and we headed off to bed. the next morning we final-packed, loaded the truck, and drove north. unfortunately, renée was still recovering from a sickness and couldn't go with, but she gave us a wave and wished us luck. the road to stanley took us up and over galena pass, where i had learned to telemark ski, way 'back in the day' when i had come out to be best man at paul's and renée's wedding. i had returned--and skied galena again--a few times, once with kevin when we were heading to alaska and denali. the pass was snowless for the moment, but i could remember the many lines, and envision hundreds more; just a few feet of snow would open up a world of joy.
we pulled into stanley and the cafe and fueled up on their famous pancakes. paul mentioned that a breakfast stop here was the tradition whenever they passed by. i was honored to get in on that. pam and i had actually gotten stuck in stanley when we were hitchhiking home from a visit--again, way 'back in the day'. the baking co. wasn't there in '76, i recall we ate breakfast in the lodge after spending the night there to avoid -52°F outdoors on the roadside.
well fed and back on the road, a few miles west of town we got out to the iron creek campground and the trailhead to enter the sawtooths from the north end. we swapped crocs for hiking shoes, shouldered our packs, and started, one foot in front of the other. hiking out west is not all that different than the trails in the white mtns back east, only it is much much dryer here and instead of all dirt with rocks and roots, there is a good amount of gravel on the footpath.
being dry and gravelly also means the fallen trees don't rot nearly as quickly which makes for lots and lots of grey sticks of all sizes littering the forest. such excess would make our trail crews back home really jealous of all the material for water bars, steps, bridging, shelters, whatever. just when we turned off the main trail and headed toward goat lake, we crossed a three log bridge. paul said each log had been floating in much deeper water back in june. they were a couple of feet above water now.
as we rounded a shoulder coming out of the thicker forest, paul suddenly stopped and whispered, "stone troll...don't wake it or we're in trouble." we took a water and snack brake under its gaze and shot a couple of pictures. looking south--the direction the troll stared out--we started to see the higher peaks.
a bit further along, we came to the next turn off, semi-hidden and going steeply up to goat lake. the path was super gravelly and the slope had clearly burned off at some point. for a long while, you could hear a large amount of rushing water but we didn't get a look at it--goat falls--until passing an outcrop near its top. i imagined there would be some great ice climbing in frozen times.
the closer we got to the lake the more i noticed how hot i was and suggested to paul that we take a swim. he was not at all enthusiastic about diving into 'freezing' cold water, but i figured if i went in, he would join me. it would be good to wash off the sweat we worked up and get clean for dinner. i stripped and dove in. it was heaven, only a bit colder, though if i had to guess not all that different than the atlantic on the maine coast.
the temperature might have been similar, but the view was certainly unique. after i got my boxers back on paul took this shot. the tiny triangle in the center distance is thompson peak, where we would be headed the next day. at 8000 feet plus, the water was snow melt coming down from patches like the ones you can see above the lake. oh, and paul did go in, up to his neck even.
we set up our tent just above the swimming 'hole', and cooked dinner on my new, ultra-lite alcohol stove. after cleaning up, we talked of life well into the evening.
it cooled off quickly when the sun dipped behind the ridge line to the west, but there seemed to be a warm air mass moving up from the south. there were no clouds to clue us in on the direction of those upper winds, but that made for some super star watching. before i crawled into my sleeping bag, the milky way had washed a bright strip across the sky. when i woke up and went to pee a couple of hours later, the lake reflected all that starlight making for quite a show below the feet as well as above the head.
in the morning, i fired up the stove again and boiled water for oatmeal and hot cocoa. we were about done eating when the sun started to hit that western ridge line and i snapped the picture below.
the stanley baking company had great pancakes, but atmosphere like this at breakfast would be hard to beat. yes, that is snow at the water's edge.
speaking of snow and edges, we soon took off around the perimeter of the lake, hiking up the chain of lakes, around and over a few patches of the frozen. most of the snow patches were solid from their top down to rock. this one below, had a nice arched tunnel that the melt had carved out enough to scare paul around it. he stopped and took a shot, intimating that at any moment things were going to collapse and i would be toast.
of course i reminded him that if that did happen he would have to carry me out...he stopped saying anything, but he might have kept worrying.
we circumnavigated one of the lakes by edging along a ledge about 5 meters above the water. i suppose this sort of 'trail' is not for everybody, but it got me excited and kept me focused on something more than the good distance we had left to go. truth be told, i am not all that big a fan of hiking. being out in the western mountains was nice though and with a rock 'climbing' section now and again, i was smiling.
not too much further, a drainage from another lake in the chain made me think of pam's love of moss. a couple hundred yards of thick, soft green, made a lovely path up through the rock. when paul had been by here in june, it had been under more than a few feet of snow. that got me guessing that the high plants only lay exposed for about 4 months, and some of that under water. you have to be hardy to grow up here.
we got to the saddle leading up to thompson peak and paul snapped a picture that showed a few of the lakes over my shoulders. goat lake, where we were camping, is the farthest blue spot to the north. it seemed like a fair distance, and we still had the peak above us to finish.
climbing through some pretty gravely scree, we worked our way up and around the western flank to the southern couloir and scrambled up. i got a nice shot of paul looking up that slot, just under the summit.
topping out, we scouted around the several of the 'false' peaks along the summit spine. looking out to the south, one really gets the idea why this range is called the sawtooths. i respect that pam would never move out here, but i could see myself living near these mountains. skiing and climbing out our backdoor is possible in new england, even fairly decent given our proximity to the white mtns. but here, going outside and playing in the backyard would be like dying and going to heaven. just so i would remember it, paul took a picture of what we were looking over as we settled down to eat lunch at the summit register...
the view definitely put big smiles on our faces! after a multi pitch climb, my expression was a bit weary here--maybe it was a bad hair day. this picture was taken 40 years ago, somewhere out there in that view above, on the finger of fate, a stone spire in the sawtooths. i led one of paul's best friends, steve ollila, up there just so he could take this picture of me--jk. steve died a few years back but we opted out of a memorial climb so that we could actually set the camera and sit together on a summit...
the march back down to goat lake, didn't take as long as coming up--gravity has a way of making that work easier. although it was not just a hop, skip, and a jump, we did make it before dark and were able to cook without headlamps. that night, clouds did start moving in and we got a rain shower or two before breakfast. chocolate milk in our oatmeal fueled us through packing and hiking out--in time to hit the stanley baking co. cafe for 2nd breakfast!
well fed, we got back in the truck but, before driving back over galena pass we stopped at redfish lake to relax in the shallows of the river feeding it. i couldn't have asked for a nicer end to such a wonderful three days.
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