The money shot from Upper Chicago Lake looking back down the valley. Everyone who tells you not to stop at the lower lake and make the extra push to the upper one is absolutely right.
The local ground squirrels were apparently familiar with people. This chubby little guy practically ran right onto my boot looking for a handout.
The highlight of the day for Zak may have been tossing a clump of dirt and rocks onto the waterfall cascading from the upper lake to the lower one, where it shattered into oblivion on impact.
If you didn't think the 4+ miles and 1,100 feet of elevation gain to get to this point was enough, you could always go another thousand feet up to Summit Lake. We passed.
We ate our CLIF Mojo bars, took pictures and relaxed for almost 45 minutes but it seemed to fly right by. All too soon, we were headed back down.
The Sawtooth, I believe.
My fascination with dead wood continues.
And there was a bunch of it, especially in a 400-acre area that had burned down back in 1978.
Reaching Idaho Springs Reservoir was an indication that we were almost done.
And after a fairly annoying 400-foot climb up from Chicago Creek, there we were back at Echo Lake.I saw some estimates that the round-trip distance was about eight miles and others that put it closer to 10. Zak didn't hesitate when I asked him which he thought was closer -- "Ten, dad. Definitely 10." Considering it took us nearly seven hours, I tend to agree with him!
1 comment:
Eight miles in sandals is impressive. For a boy, but especially for a sandal.
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