Monday August 11, 15.8mi/25.4km

Sawtooth Lake (x/8450ft) to Stanley Lake Creek (254.0/6560ft) to Trail Creek Lakes (244.2/7990ft) (ID)
-2.5mi skip Obs peak, +5.1mi retrace, +3.4mi Sawtooth Lake

The group had planned a shorter day today, while I would be doing a few more miles to connect my footsteps to the spot I left off at last Saturday. Despite being at 8,500 ft, it was a warm night, and an even warmer morning. We departed Sawtooth Lake and all of its wildflowers.

The lake was much bigger than I realized, apparently we had camped on a small bay, where the entire lake wasn’t visible.

When we got to the spot where the morning sunlight was reflecting off the lake, it was very warm indeed.

We crossed over a small pass and descended through a large burn area, with lots of little Alpine ponds.

Photos of people taking photos!

Pretty quickly we arrived at a trail junction, where the group temporarily split. I made a right turn, towards Stanley Lake, to reconnect my footsteps. Tory and Chelsea decided to do a side quest, and hike up Observation Peak, the highest hikeable mountain in the Sawtooths (the other mountains are too technical for hiking). Randi relaxing at the junction.

My quest to reconnect my steps would be 4.5 miles each way, so 9 extra miles in total today. As expected, the trail was burned over in this area.

I descended 1000ft. and the lower valley was much more burned.

Since it was all downhill, I arrived at my turnaround point pretty quickly, and then started back uphill. It was hot in the shadeless meadows.

Higher up, the meadows were still hot but the nearby creek seemed to help keep the area cool.

I passed a random Leave No Trace sign, this was sign #6, I never saw the other five so I assume they burned in the fire.

In mid-afternoon I arrived back at the pass where I had left my friends this morning. Of course they were long gone and at the campsite by now, and I enjoyed some downhill miles.

From there, it didn’t take me long to get to our campsite at Trail Creek Lake, though the final little uphill was a little brutal. I got to camp early enough to enjoy a swim, it was only 4 pm. The others had already been swimming.

It was a relaxing afternoon of swimming, reading, and snacking. We setup our tents in one of the few spots we could find that wasn’t at risk of falling dead trees, which was right next to the lake.

After dinner I went down to the shore to watch the sunset over the water.

Even though we’re at 8,000 ft elevation, and the sun has gone down, it’s not that cold. As I write this, some furry dehumidifier-sized creature (sorry, no banana for scale) is prowling around the camping area, hopefully it leaves us alone tonight.