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 guard them from wolves. He had 4 horses, and three mules to move his camp and get supplies for the animals and himself.
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 said it was warm compared to her Polar Bear activities. She didn't utter a sound when she got in the water. I would have been screaming!
It was pretty cold, 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 like 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 bet I'd sell out. Many were cold, few were frozen. More photos at Rapid Lake Album.
cold indeed! though we lucked out overall, it was supposed to be a lot more wet. chris had no complaints about the water and occasionally drifted to shore in his tube dropping off some good sized fish for anyone to eat. it must have been incredible in that crystal clear lake! he mentioned that he could just look through the water and cast at the fish he saw. he spent hours out there!
Ruben, the sheepherder, stopped by my camp for a good ten minutes, enticed by the warmth of the fire i suppose. it was a unique ten minutes as he didn't say but two or three words. he snapped his dogs to their feet and disappeared as fast as he came.
the hike back was swift, one of the benefits of ascending to get there.
thanks bob!
BE
Posted by: Brian Ertz | September 14, 2005 at 06:00 PM
Wow. This looks like such fun. Thanks for posting this info about the cool trips that you take!
Posted by: Jeremy | September 14, 2005 at 06:51 PM