Big Heart

Backpacking trip to Big Heart Lake this (last) weekend. I haven't been there since I was eleven. Surprisingly enough, it didn't rain on us. Yay! I posted 27 photos at flickr, but I'll show you a few here, too.


The day started sunny and blue. Cold down in the valley, but hot once we climbed up into the sunlight. The place looked strange with the leaves on the ground instead of the on the trees. (I've been up this trail a few times before.)


Here we are, resting at the halfway point, Copper Lake. We saw our first clouds then, but they didn't bother us much. Sunscreen was liberally applied.


Copper Lake. Hardly any wind the entire weekend. Good reflection weather.


And finally we reached Big Heart Lake. About a half mile after I said, "We can't stop now. It's just around the corner."

We then set up camp, ate dinner, and sat around our campcandle late into the night. Mars was huge and orange. Moonrise was rather spectacular, too. But no pics of those, sorry. But we did find out who'd been attacked by chipmunks and who'd been attacked by roosters, so it wasn't a total waste.


Leisurely breakfast and packing up camp, and it was time to leave. Not enough daylight hours anymore. If we had this weather in August, we'd've had about three hours of potential swimming time at Big Heart Lake, but in October it was too cold. Darn axial tilt.


The first couple miles of trail, I'd been on earlier this year, when I led a dayhike to Malachite Lake. The river crossing near the trailhead was washed out back then and we had to walk along a couple logs. I thought "Hey, it's early in the season. They just haven't fixed it yet." But it was exactly the same this time around. The water level must've been lower this time, though, because a few people eschewed the logs and instead splashed through the bit of river, getting just their boots wet.

It started raining about a half-hour after we got back on the highway. Big dinner in Gold Bar. I've eaten three times at the Mountain View Diner (east end of town). The chicken-fried steak, montreal burger, and big bird sandwich are all very good. They'd probably taste good even not immediately after a hike. Vegetarian choices were kinda slim, I noticed. So eat meat.