Summit Lake
As you read in Tessa's last post, we've had a busy couple months (or six). I got a new job, Tessa got a new house, and just a few weeks ago I got a new truck. "New" certainly seems to be our theme lately. With the weather getting better and our lives stabilizing a bit it's time to get back to adventuring and blogging.
Lately, the mountains have been calling us, so, for Memorial Day Weekend, we gassed up the new truck, threw all of our camping/survival supplies in the back seat, and set out to see what kind of trouble we could get ourselves into. Our planned destination was Indigo Lake, to scout for a backpacking trip with friends later this summer. This journey would take us up Highway 58, then onto the 21 Road, past Hills Creek Dam, and then deep into the Diamond Peak Wilderness. The drive was a blast, as we rocketed up the well paved and lightly traveled 21 Road, Tessa and I have rapidly fallen in love with this truck's ample power and ability to absorb big bumps like they aren't even there. The only thing that slowed the Tundra down was the surprising amount of poorly trimmed windfallen trees on the last few miles of the gravel 2154 Road. That was until we reached our turnoff for the Indigo Lake trailhead...
Being up over 5,000 feet, it wasn't too surprising to encounter snowpack, I had just hoped that the roads themselves would be cleared. The Tundra is very well equipped for off road adventures, but I wasn't interested in getting us stuck in the snow.
With the road blocked in both directions we had to come up with an alternate plan. Thankfully, Summit Lake was only half a mile down the road in the other direction, and we weren't going to let that little bit of snow hiking stop us.
Although the snowpack was 2-3 feet deep, the freeze from the previous night made the top layer easy enough to hike on. So we set off down the road to see what we could find.
After a fairly short jaunt we got a peak at the lake. Even from a distance we could already tell that Summit Lake was something special.
And we were right. This picture didn't even fully capture it, with Diamond Peak in the background and glassy water in the foreground made this a sight to behold.
With selfies out of the way we carried on further down the road to Summit Lake campground.
A mile and a half later we found ourselves in a deserted campground at the edge of the lake. We're not used to finding picnic tables on our hikes, but this one offered a welcome opportunity to enjoy our lunch with a million dollar view.
The water in the lake didn't feel half bad, so naturally we made an attempt at swimming. Big mistake! That lasted all of a minute before we clamored out to dry off in the sun. It was worth a shot though; later in the summer this will make a fantastic mountain pool.
As we were drying off a chipmunk came by to say hello. We were excited to make a little furry friend, until it decided to test our personal boundaries. Not sure what it's interest was in my foot, but it came this close several times and wasn't easily scared away.
Before heading back to the truck we explored a near by "intersection". North takes you to the 23 Road, East takes you to Crescent Lake via an extremely rough road, and South would return us to the truck.
Our route back was made significantly more arduous by sun softened snow and a slight uphill. Probably the toughest two miles that we have hiked in awhile, but the effort was worth it.