One of my favorite comics is Family Circus; I especially like the ones where Billy’s mom asks him to go get someone or something. The illustration shows a bird’s eye view of their house and surrounding area and traced dotted line shows the haphazard trail that Billy blazes to accomplish this simple task. The journey of the dotted line: weaves in and out of flower beds, there is usually a tight rope style traverse atop a fence, walking around and around a dizzy looking dog, climbing up a tree and down a rope swing, and other various twirls and carefree saunters. The comic ends with Bobby returning to his mom to inquire on that simple thing that was asked of him in the first place.
Bobby’s trail looks pretty darn similar to the trail my GPS traced of Dave Mecham and me as we tried to find the trail head to Lake Blanche last Saturday. The trail head is a little tricky to find: there is a wide asphalt-paved path that leads to a sign that reads, “Lake Blanche Trail.” Clearly it was too difficult to find, right? So Dave and I walked past the sign that was practically screaming “You Idiots, where are you going?!” And we made our way into a maze of thick brush and deer trails that lead to many dead ends. After several minutes of frustration we decided to back track, and behold we saw a sign… well the trail sign.
The Hike
The Lake Blanche trail is 2.8 miles one way and it vertically climbs nearly half a mile. Not an easy hike yet many people, young and old—fit and fat, populated the trail. At first we passed many people in their golden years coming down, it seemed that the higher we got the younger the crowd got. We also passed up a few people who were heading up. The total time it took to get to the top was one hour and 37 minutes.
The hike alone is beautiful. There were purple and yellow wild flowers that speckled the green terrain, boulders that stood immovable among the vegetation and the towering evergreens providing welcomed shade from the hot sun for most of the trail. I stopped to take a few pictures of the grand landscape knowing that my simple 4.1 mega pixels camera would only take an insulting picture, yet enough to trigger the memory of it.
Lake Blanche
Lake Blanche appears after hiking across long rock slabs. The lake is very pretty but it is not as big as I thought it would be. However, surrounding Lake Blanche are peaks that spire into the sky. I wished I had planned time to hike to these peaks.
Dave and I found a place to relax by the lake. Many hikers were spread around the lake doing the same. I pulled out my hiking stove and the eggs and bacon backpacker meal and boiled up some water to make our lunch. I don’t know if I would enjoy the grainy eggs and bacon if I was at home, but it sure tasted great up there and I would have gone for seconds if it was available.
After lunch, taking a few pictures and enjoying the surroundings we started the hike down. The trail follows the along the lake then takes a right angled turn down the mountain. As we were about to take that turn, we crossed paths with two young ladies. I decided to turn on some Jacob charm and so I joked by saying “Keep going, you’re almost there,” they were nice enough to give me a courtesy laugh that had a hint of effort.
We made great time getting down, we did not stop once to rest and we passed up a lot of people heading down as well. It took an hour and two minutes to get to the bottom. On the way down we saw people hiking up to the lake, they looked tired. Knowing how great and beautiful it is up at the lake I felt obligated to encourage them to keep moving. I am sure they would have made it anyways but it is nice to get a little bit of motivation once in a while.
. . .
I did not think I would really get into blogging, but I have found that it has really encouraged me to get out and pursue my passions in life. When my alarm went off Saturday morning at 7:30 I almost just turned it off and rolled over to go back to bed but then I had the thought that I have to blog about my hikes, so I got up. I guess this is a good thing after all.
P.S. I’m always looking for new hikes and people to go with, please let me know of any good hikes and if you do not mind me tagging along.
5 comments:
Sounds like a beautiful hike and a great work out. I would love to go hiking with you, so if you ever need a hiking friend, let me know. I made a goal about a month ago that I was going to go hiking once a week. I made the goal when Marty and I hiked up to Red Pine Lake. I haven't been hiking since. I don't think I met the goal. Oh well. That's life. But, i really do want to hike more. So, let's go!
I miss Utah. I really, really miss Utah.
Have you hiked Mt. Nebo yet? I know it is a bit of drive for you, but a buddy and I hiked it once in about 6 hours, round trip. Being the second tallest peak in Utah...it was well worth the hike.
Your chronicles and photos sounds interesting. You should travel to Colombia to enjoy spectacular adventures in rivers and mountains.
Dude! Jake I didn't know you could be so poetic! All I have read are papers about obesity and school crap. You are a pretty good blogger! Keep it up and you better not be grumpy today or else!
Oh and if you need any good hikes or advice on hiking... Spencer is the one to talk to. He is crazy mountain man and he has gone through almost everything. Just don't be stupid and go alone like he does most of the time!!! Have fun and thanks for posting!
Jake, those pictures are beautiful! What a great hike. And I am sure that those other hikers appreciated your words of encouragement. I always like to hear from other hikers when I am on my way up and they are coming down, it is motivating. And Brian and I would love to go on a hike with you.
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