This is part 7 of the “Why We Hike” Series
Maybe this should be Florence Lake, part 2. Either way, we had such a good time 2 weeks earlier we decided to go back and do the things we didn’t get a chance to do that trip. A big difference was that college had let now out and our daughter, Jazmin would be able to go with us this time.
Learning from the previous exploration, we went further down river to the really nice campsites pulling in about 30 minutes after sunset. The offroad lights I had installed a couple of days before sure came in handy. Anyway, we made camp, built a good sized campfire, had a big dinner and then hit the tent for the night.
The next morning we drove up to Florence Lake and parked at the trailhead that climbs up to Dutch Lake. Along the way, Zach got to play in every stream crossing and there were quite a few. Oh, and man was this trail steep. Its not often I hear Kelly complain (especially compared to me) about a trail but this one even got to her. It did eventually ease up, but somewhere while crossing a section of large flat rock slabs we got completely off trail. To be fair, we made the mistake of following someone else’s rock cairns. For those who do not hike, when you see 3 (or more) rocks stacked on top of each other, it is supposed to be marking the trail. So we followed these cairns until it became obvious that we were bushwacking it. I had the GPS (and a map/compass) so it was more of a pain in the ass than anything else. One benefit of the bushwacking detour was finding a few large patches of snow. It was Zach’s first experience with snow and he was hilarious; rolling, running and jumping in the stuff.
Cresting over a ridge we joined back up with the trail right as we made Dutch Lake.
It was a fine setting for everyone to take a break and eat some cookies and play fetch with Zach. It was about this time that he discovered minnows and spent the next 15 minutes chasing them through the shallows.
The next morning Zach was decidedly on strike so we piled into the Jeep and went out to explore the surrounding area. In particular I wanted to recon Bear Diversion. So after a while of winding single lane we pulled off to the 2 mile Jeep trail that leads back to the lake. The road wasn’t too bad but I put it in 4WD to prevent slipping, After 15 minutes, we pulled onto a large rock plateau overlooking a small lake.
With hopes of sweet talking Zach into a hike, we found the trailhead to the Bear Creek trail. Unfortunately we only got a mile into the hike before Zach started having problems with sensitive feet. It appeared that some parts of the trail were just too hot on his freshly worn pads. We went down to the creek and had a photofest while he cooled his tootsies.
After getting poor Zach back to the Jeep, we returned to Florence lake so Jaz and I can try some trout fishing. I did catch a small Brown trout but the best part was watching Zach lose his mind playing along the shoreline. He spent a good hour running and jumping along the water’s edge with occasional splashing in the lake. The dog was just REALLY happy and having fun.
He slept hard that night and all the way on the drive home the next day.
Continued here: Bear Diversion