It should have only been a 6 mile hike…
The Troublesome fire of October 2020 burned much of the first few miles of our hike. Starting at the Fern Lake trailhead sounded lovely to us. Unknown to us that the fire scorched the earth bare. Life in the form of flowers and grasses, did save the hike up to Fern Falls for us. But when Fern Lake was surrounded by burnt trees, we thought the hike a loss. A hiker came down the trail while we ate lunch, and said that the next lake was fabulous. We had to try and save the hike so we pushed on. He was right, and Lake Odessa was glorious. Greeted by a Greenback Cutthroat Trout, swimming in the clearest of waters, I had to go join him. No way could I even get past my knees before freezing. Warming up in the sun, we came to our dilemma: hike back down the fire scorched way we came, or go up and over and catch the free bus back to the car? Water was our problem! We had enough for Fern Lake and down, but not enough for more for more altitude, then down.
Does anyone have any iodine tablets or a water filter we could borrow? A lovely lady offered us her “extra” bottle, and assured us she wouldn’t dehydrate. There was more to if than that, but in the end we topped off and headed up. Below the glaciers, we spotted marmot and pika, and breathed heavy at 10,700 ft in the sub alpine environs. Peaks and glaciers behind, we could make good time on the down.
Ending with 10.7 miles at Bear Lake, and a much needed water refill station, we caught the bus nearly back to the car. Another 0.7 miles on road, past two heard of elk, we learned that the hike was done the wrong way!? If we started at Bear Lake, the uphill would have been easy, and the long down easy too…
Back to camp for a beer, snack, then dinner and a fire, thinking tomorrow might be a driving excursion…
