Highline Trail Trek Journal
-- Daily Stats
| |
Times |
Ascent |
Descent |
High |
Low |
Daily* |
Total* |
| Day 1 |
11:20am - 7:30pm |
1880' |
880' |
10,509' |
9111' |
|
|
| Day 2 |
6:55am - 6:50pm |
3500' |
3210' |
11,421' |
9698' |
|
|
| Day 3 |
7:25am - 5:25pm |
2020' |
2290' |
10,574' |
9806' |
|
|
| Day 4 |
6:45am - 6:00pm |
4130' |
3640' |
11,096' |
10,049' |
|
|
| Day 5 |
6:55am - 8:05pm |
2620' |
4950' |
11,148' |
8251' |
|
|
| Day 6 |
6:05am - 8:50am |
450' |
600' |
8284' |
7956' |
|
~80 |
|
* Mileage
** Data collected using a Suunto X6 and Earthwalk Press topographic maps
-- Day 1
- Started: Big Sandy Trailhead (9111')
- Route Overview:
- Big Sandy Lake
- Clear Lake (from Black Joe Creek)
- Detour to Deep Lake (Wow! In an amazing cirque with tons of cool peaks - looked like good climbing)
- Saw a weasel of some sort with a yellow/white tip on its tail (by Deep Lake)
- Also saw a red bird - we wondered if it was a crossbill
- Noticed that rivers running down solid granite are lots warmer than normal rivers
- Wow - can you believe an entire range of mountains can be made of solid granite rather than chunks of granite like most mountains? No wonder so many climbers come here.
- Ended: Clear Lake (10,012')
-- Day 2
- Route Overview:
- Big Sandy Lake
- Jackass Pass (via climbers route - left at Arrowhead Lake)
- Lonesome Lake (ate breakfast overlooking lake - cool campsites)
- Texas Pass (really steep descent on Shadow Lake side; best flowers of the trip so far; saw hummingbirds too!)
- Shadow Lake (stopped for snack and swim)
- Ended: Top of ridge about to enter plateau (10,500')
-- Day 3
- Route Overview:
- Raid Lake (breakfast - Old Highline Trail/Fremont)
- Bob's Lake (sheep! yuck!)
- Pipestone Lakes (ate snack on cool metamorphic rock overlooking lake and Mt. Victor; heard strange roaring sound (mule, elk, or bear?))
- North Fork Lake (ran into 2 folks doing CDT...they had ULA packs; fun stream crossing)
- Plateau was REALLY beautiful - as we got back into more trees there were lots of grand views because the trees were sparsely spaced - AWESOME!! This was our favorite part of the trip so far.
- Places to check out in the future:
- Hall's Lake and Shoestring Lake
- Lake Bonneville (trail not shown on map - out of Raid Lake)
- Pyramid Lake - crossing over between Mt. Bonneville and Raid Peak
- Ended: Rambaud Lake (10,100')
-- Day 4
- Route Overview:
- Hat Pass (saw 3 elk, 1 bull; heard wolves howling and maybe a coyote too)
- Lester Pass
- Little Seneca Lake
- Island Lake (beautiful, sand beach, awesome wildflowers)
- Titcomb Lake (1st Big One; amazing entrance, wildflowers; went swimming; slept under stars...very bright with the full moon and white granite peaks surrounding us)
- Saw bear tracks and lots of elk tracks...need to learn our tracks!
- Ended: Titcomb Lake (10,598')
-- Day 5
- Route Overview:
- Island Lake
- Fremont Crossing (nice river - ate breakfast)
- Lower/Upper Jean Lake
- Shannon Pass
- Peak Lake (AWESOME lake with amazing surrounding rocks - should camp there sometime)
- Cube Pass (easy)
- Vista Pass
- Trail Creek Park (got water; nice campsites; forest/meadow awesome)
- Three Forks Park
- Beaver Park
- Met CDT hikers Heather and Remy (check out their journal)
- Places to check out in the future: Peak Lake and Knapsack Col into Titcomb Basin
- Slept under stars
- Ended: Meadow past Squaretop Mountain (8251')
-- Day 6
- Had to set up tarp in early morning because some weather blew in
- Saw 5 moose (2 bull, 2 female, 1 baby) before upper Green River Lake
- Saw hairy woodpecker
- Saw deer (frozen in woods)
- Ended: Green River Lakes Trailhead (7956')
-- Molly & Brian Lawrence
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Deep Lake Cirque |
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