Backpacking - July 24 to July 28, 2003

The next day (Sunday) everyone but Jan and me decided to hike down and catch the 4:45 ferry back to Vermillion and stay the night there.  Jan and I stayed one more night, knowing we'd have to get up really early to hike down in time to make the 9:45 a.m. ferry back.  Regardless, we figured that was a good plan and it turned out to be.  We took our extra day Sunday to hike up to two other lakes above Mott: Bighorn (actually, it might be called Little Bighorn) and Rosy Finch.  They're both at around 11,000 ft.  There's also Mt. Izaak Walton (12,099 ft.) nearby but we wern't sure how the weather was going to hold out given the last two days of rain and hail.

It turned out to be a great hike.  We got going a little before noon and were back by late-afternoon in time to have dinner.  It didn't start hailing until about 5:30 as I recall.  Overall, that day had the best weather of them all.  The rain and hail started later, was shorter, and was mostly hail, though there was far more hail than the previous two days (some of it even stayed overnight!).  It ended early enough for me to get out and sleep outside for the last evening.  Again, I enjoyed the view of the milky way, the satellites, the shooting stars, and (that night) the bats. 

We got up early (I set my alarm for 5:15 a.m.) and hiked back to the east side of Edison Lake.  I started walking at 6:05 and was to the lake right at 9:00, only 2 hours and 55 minutes later!  And I didn't even wreck my knees doing it, though my ankle hurt just a little.  We arrived back at VVR and met up with the rest of the crew there.  Jan and I stuffed ourselves at the restaurant again and then we made our way back home.

Overall I'd say this was one of the prettiest places we've ever been.  Mott is also a fantastic place to base camp at.  There are several day hikes (like the one Jan and I did) that are fairly reasonable and even one night out-and-back trips would yield nice results.  It's super pretty with several good places to camp and wasn't too crowded (there were 3 groups there including us until the last night when it was just Jan and I).  I'm sure I'll be back... maybe sooner rather than later...