We had a good backpack this fall to a nice little lake called Coffee Cup Lake, in the Grass Mountains near McCall. It was about the only place in the state that wasn't experiencing forest fires. We had cool weather but it didn't freeze overnight. There were no mosquities, and plenty of tent sites for the fairly large group. Mike caught some really nice sized cutthroat trout, the biggest I've seen from a high mountain lake. The biggest one was close to 20 inches. The full set of pics is here .
A total of 18 of us hiked to Rapid Lake on the weekend of Sept 10-11. It was very scenic there, very cold at night, very heavily visited by sheep. If no one gets sick, then our filters worked, because there were sheep berries everywhere. The sheepherder was Ruben, from Peru. He had two border collies to move the sheep, and two Great Pyrenness to gaurd them from wolves and bears. He had 4 horses, and three mules to move his camp and get supplies for the animals and himself.
It was about 4.5 miles in, with 1200 ft of elevation gain, a nice easy hike. Chris S. lugged a float tube to the lake, and did very well catching some nice fish. He was using a sinking fly which was a red version of a renegade, which he ties himself.
Kellie took a dip in the cold water, and it was warm compared to her Polar Bear activities.
It was pretty cold at night, in the low 20s we figured, and several people were cold. Hello Sara, a foam pad helps a lot! That night made a down sleeping bag look a pretty good investment. Next time I'll bring a few extra sleeping bags up there, and sell them at about 2 AM for $500 each. I'll bet I'd sell out. This fall trip was to Rapid Lake near McCall. We got to try out Josiah's alcohol stove, and it seemed to work fine. The fire was going late into the night, and was restarted early in the morning
. It threatened to rain on us, but snowed instead, a few tiny flakes.
The Winter Camping class of 2005 was a great success (nobody died). Photos are at: Winter Camping 2005. 
Bob's BSU hike to Box Lake, near McCall, has photos here - Box Lake.
