The trail is about 4.5 miles to the lake, somewhat longer than the mileage I had read. The hiking is challenging but not harder than your average Gorge hike. Think Table Mountain or Silver Star. With a pack, I was hot, but it was not bad at all, and extremely well-marked for such meandering, rugged terrain.
I explored around the rim of the lake a bit, and decided to do more in the morning. I backtracked to the first campsite near the privy.
At camp, I took plenty of pictures, ate dinner, read my book and mused about life and why I do things like drive five hours to go sit by myself on a rock and eat dehydrated food from a bag. No doubt this was a gorgeous lake, but not necessary as a backpack. I guess I thought it would be fun. And it was, mostly, until my night-time visitor. At about midnight, a large animal clambered up the boulders about five feet from my tent and then hovered near it for the rest of the night. I would hear it intermittently, scared out of my mind. The fact that I never heard my bear canister and stove jiggle from my kitchen area baffled me, and I couldn't understand why the animal was just hanging out. Was I being stalked? I yelled, made noise, and prepared to do battle with my trekking poles, but in reality all I could think was to kiss my ass goodbye if it came into my tent. I swore up and down never to camp solo again, despite every other uneventful experience I have had. Eventually, I relaxed and drifted off for a few minutes. And then, at 4 am I heard the metallic click of hikers carrying trekking poles and mountaineering gear, and saw the faint glow of first light. My relief was intense. I got out to relieve the bladder that had been bursting since midnight. After fumbling around with my gear for a bit and journaling about my experience, I got out again. This time I noticed I wasn't alone.
This large goat was hovering near my toilet area, about 10 feet from me. At first, I was surprised in the way that you are when you realize you are a) being watched, and b) in the presence of wildlife. I was calm enough to take a picture before shooing him away. He didn't exactly shoo particularly fast, and in fact it took quite a bit of noise and a bluff charge on my part before he scampered up the trail a bit. "Wow, that's pretty cool," I thought. "Now, on to breakfast." I started to move towards my kitchen when I noticed he was back, and had noiselessly shimmied into the trees behind me. What the hell...? I tried to scare him off again, and this time he just stared at me with creepy narrow-set eyes. We carried on like this for about fifteen minutes until I started to feel a little threatened. It occurred to me from his sounds and movements that this was my night-time visitor! While I knew he wasn't a threat to me, his persistence was getting a little freaky. Once he got too close and I lobbed a rock in his direction - this seemed to provoke him a bit. At this point, I gave in. I'm stubborn, but I'm not that stubborn. Touché, goat. You can have my campsite and whatever dried pee you can find, you weirdo. I hastily stuffed my backpack full, and he escorted me out like a damn security guard. Fuck you, goat.
I hope you get to visit the Enchantments some day, it's like a magical little piece of the Sierra Nevada right here in the PNW. Oh, and up there the goats will follow you if they see you split off from your group; they've learned the signs of an imminent pee break.
ReplyDeleteHah hah, yes, I will definitely be going back. I think in September I'll try a Little Annapurna epic dayhike. Thanks for commenting/reading!
ReplyDeleteThe goat was after the salt in the urine. Nice trip report and pictures. I need to check that area out
ReplyDeleteYeah, I mentioned that in the post. Thanks for reading and commenting - definitely get out that way, it's worth the drive :)
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