October 2025

Upcoming weather predictions chose this hike for me. In two days time, the weatherman was saying there could be a foot of snow above 5,000 of elevation. So I knew this week might be my only shot at getting myself some good oxygen deprivation before Fall fast forwarded into Winter. We hit the trail with climbing on the brain. Well, and one other thing. I was thinking about another lake I had read about. I have been in this area three other times and thought about finding the hidden lake. But each of those times, I got distracted by exploring a lush ravine, seeking out wildflowers and having fun with some river fords. Each of those visits, I ran out of time to find the lake before dark. This would be my fourth time up here, and I was committed to finding this secret lake with the unmarked trail. But first, we were going to climb a wee spur up the mountain first and then try to loop our way down via bush-wacking if necessary to find the lake. My hope was that once I was high enough, I would be able to look down and see the lake in order to get my bearings straight.

Our first challenge was getting to this trailhead. This is one of my most hated forest service road drives. It is long and very, very skinny. The single lane road clings to cliffs and is overgrown with brush to the point that at times the bushes and trees massage both sides of my truck at the same time. It drives fast, but whips around so many corners with zero visibility that it begs for a head on crash at any moment. It is one of those roads where if you do run into someone coming the other way, one of you is going to be backing up for a long time until you can pass each other. Basically it sucks and I hate it. To make matters worse, the road dead ends in the tiniest "parking space" you can imagine. Most of the time I have come here, there have been no spots left and you can't even turn around. I usually shove my truck half up a tree to try to park. Not cool in any way. I plan to write the forest service a letter begging them to at least make the parking area bigger here. Of course, just as an additional challenge, as I drove up the curvy nightmare on this day, the sun was right in my eyes meaning I really wouldn't see the head on crash coming at all.

The entire drive, I just prayed and prayed that there would be no other vehicle coming and that God would give me just one decent parking space. It was my non-stop repeated mantra for mile after mile. The closer I got, the more stressed I was feeling. I was not worried about the climb at all. I was only worried about how many miles away I might have to park my truck to get to the trailhead and if I could back my truck back down those miles. When I had my truck clinging to the final cliff side section with fresh rock fall on it that I had to slowly just drive over (no room to go around), I suddenly came to the end of the road. There was only one SUV there!!! "How can this be???" I asked God. This place has always been packed!!! But then I realized that I had never come here this late in the Season. I instantly knew that this trailhead would become a Fall favorite for me! With the Fall colors popping like crazy, I really didn't even miss the wildflowers of summer.

As I was climbing higher and higher toward the mountain, I suddenly came to an abrupt stop. All I could do was stand there and stare at the bushes. I have never found wild berries in the middle of October on plants that have clearly turned their Fall colors! Normally if you do find them this time of year, they are shriveled up and dehydrated berries on the bush really only still good for birds and maybe bears. But here, were lush, fat, juicy berries everywhere!!! "Oh, I am going to be very distracted today", I thought to myself as I started shoving them in my mouth by the handful.

As we climbed through the dense berry bushes, we were startling all kinds of birds who also must have known snow was coming and they were flying out of the brush in droves. It was like a constant wall of birds flying up just ten feet in front of us for a solid mile. I felt bad disturbing them from their meals, but it just could not be helped. At one point, while I was very distracted by a particularly good bush full of huge berries, we heard some loud rustling in the brush behind us. "That is way bigger than a bird" I told the girls. "Josie, you've got our back...please be our lookout" I told the Wolf as she stood between me, Nova and the large critter behind us. From the bear scat we had been finding, I figured he was just eating too. I barely looked for him as the berries were just so good. These are the ones where approximately every 100th berry tastes just like cotton candy. Yes, I will make myself sick eating hundreds of berries to get the cotton candy ones. They are unreal.

Eventually I had to drag the girls and my purple hands up the trail. The only things more distracting than the delicious berries were the bright red, yellow and orange colors popping all around us. Such beauty is hard to take in all at once. But I could feel my soul settling and growing lighter all at the same time as I breathed in the mountain air and reached out to touch the colors so bright the plants appeared to be on fire.

The trail grew steeper as we went and eventually we reached the junction with several other trails. This is where I have always gotten distracted by veering off somewhere else to explore. There is one magical trail here that was begging me to walk with him today, but I sadly told him that I had other plans. "I have a date with a lake" I said and passed that junction up with bitter sweet longing in my heart. How I wanted to be in two places at once today!

Instead, I took another trail so I could more clearly see the peak above us and used that section to scope out the ridge lines above us. From here, I would be needing to find a place to go off trail and just start climbing. From what I had read, you can scramble your way up to the spur I was heading for on a number of goat trails. They are all steep, rocky and difficult, so it didn't really matter which way we went. I knew we would soon be above tree line so enjoyed our last moments with our tree friends before we headed for the rock, sand and boulders above.

The weather was turning on us and becoming colder as we finally decided on a route to climb. The clouds were really rolling in and the winds were becoming fierce. I have already transitioned out of summer gear and was climbing in fleece lined leggings under fall hiking pants and had 3 layers on my upper body. At this point, I had to pull out my gloves and stocking cap from the side pockets on my pack. I still had a good thick puffer jacket with hood in my pack, but the climbing became too steep to safely pull my pack off. The girls channeled their inner mountain goat, and up, up and up we went. Every now and then, instead of looking at our feet and the rocks before us, we would turn to see the clouds and views behind us. It always took our breath away.

The clouds became darker and the winds stronger with each step we ascended. We could still catch glimpses of some of the other mountains around us and could see far away spot lights where the sun was breaking through the clouds to shine on the forests below. It was stunning.

What was also stunning was how much oxygen deprivation affects me. Clearly I am not one of those people who will ever go and climb Everest without oxygen. I can't explain why, but if I drive up to 10,000 of elevation, I feel fine. But the moment I hike above about 6,000 feet, my body really feels it and tries to revolt. It is rather fun really....suddenly going from a normal, strong hiking body to finding yourself sucking air like a freight train just standing still. I was glad no other climbers were around as it was rather embarrassing. Even the girls were looking at me trying to figure out why I couldn't catch my breath the higher we climbed. We were climbing up to about 8,000 feet today and that was going to be a long 2000 foot climb of struggling for oxygen!! As usual, I watched the girls closely and they did not seem to be affected. Trying to reassure Nova at one of my many breaks I had to take during the ascent to just move oxygen, I ground out of my mouth between gasps, "Can't......get......air......I'm.....ok......give.....me......a.....minute". I am not sure that was super reassuring from the look on her face by the time I got that sentence out. If I wasn't breathing like I had just finished an Ironman Triathlon, it might have been more convincing. Josie, on the other hand, clearly thought I was just being dramatic and at this point, we had climbed past a huge snow field. She was growing peeved that we were not glissading down it. I think she started to pray to God that I would change my mind and let us slide back down.

The wind worsened, if that was even possible. Now I had more than one reason to barely be able to get oxygen into my body. Huge walls of sand were blowing off neighboring ridges to coat us and fill out mouths with grit. We were climbing up right along a very steep cliff and I became concerned that the wind would blow us off it to our deaths. So we moved inward as much as we could while keeping our heads down and trying to stay low to the ground. There were so many rocks and boulders no matter which way we went that it was slow going. Temperatures had plummeted and I could feel the sweat in my base layer freezing. I was starting to shiver, even though still climbing with great exertion. Everything in my mind was screaming that I needed to turn around. Conditions were not good. I could no longer feel my lips and my cheeks were on fire from the stinging cold winds. The clouds kept moving in below and were seemingly cutting us off from the world beneath us.

I started to try to question my mind. Was I too hypothermic? Was the altitude affecting me too much? Was I making wise decision anymore?? I knew the answers were yes, yes and no.....but kept going. I needed to see the peak. "Just a little bit farther" I said to the girls while secretly praying for the wind to stop. We hunkered down between large rocks any chance we could to get a break. If we got behind a big enough rock, the wind stopped and it was magical. But the moment we stepped back out, we felt like we were going to blow right off the mountain. We stayed super close together and moved as one.

Then it was all worth it. We made it up the wee spur to our goal. I was utterly gobsmacked. It was a moment that dreams are made of. This is the very place the Rapture should happen as I felt halfway to Heaven already. My very bones felt dry and it was as if I were floating. But that may have been the lack of oxygen. We were the only souls there and watched the clouds lift up to give us a peak of the peak. She was surely lifting her skirts.

I started to just praise God in this moment. It was such a magical experience and time seemed to stand still. I told Him that I entrusted my life into His hands and thanked him for getting us safely to this place of such glory. It was the ultimate alter to come to praise my Lord and Savior. I never wanted it to end. But then I realized that I was uncontrollably shivering. I looked down and Nova's whole body was shaking. Josie, of course, was totally in her element.

"Sorry Josie, we have to get down out of this wind. Nova and I are going to freeze to death in minutes." I told the Beast. We were going to go a different way down and I did not know if there would be more snow or glaciers to glissade. But I told her if there were, we would do it. Unfortunately, the moment we turned to start our descent, I realized that going down would be even slower than coming up. It was so steep that we had to be careful to not just roll into a downfall or start a rock avalanche. The rocks and boulders would roll out from under our frozen and weak legs. I was not in good form. Now that the ascent was over, I was getting even colder and felt like I could barely control my body. I knew that a broken ankle up here would be death. We moved with great purpose and with as much thoughtfulness as possible considering how many of my brain cells were frozen. I have become used to that feeling where I can tell my brain is not fully functioning. I have pushed that time and time again and know my boundaries. At least, I think I do. To distract myself from the fear of disaster on the descent, I started to look for the lake. I soon realized that even though I was high up, I could not see the secret and hidden lake I wanted to find down below. Clearly this lake does not like to be found. But I knew the general direction it should be, even though I could not see it. The sun was starting to set behind a ridge line to our West, so time was of the essence.

The thing that is special about this lake is that I had read it has no inlet or outlet. It is basically a bowl that fills with snowmelt and then stays there until it either dries up or refills. They say it becomes like a bathtub at the end of season....nice and warm with a gentle sandy bottom. I had been very prepared for a dip, but unless it was warm like a bathtub, my hypothermic body was saying no way!! Since I could not see the lake, I feared that it had perhaps already dried up. After studying the lay of the land beneath my feet (that wasn't hidden in clouds), I decided to head for a ridgeline to our East and attempt to climb down that in hopes of finding the lake tucked in somewhere farther down. The climb down this ridge was so much better than the way we had gone up!!! I instantly knew that the next time I come up here, hoping to catch a non-windy day, I will 100% be climbing this route!

With each step downward, I could feel the temperatures rising. With each step, the wind was lessening. With each step the air felt thick with oxygen. My favorite thing about oxygen deprivation is coming down out of it. Such a wild feast for the senses I can tell you that!! You almost feel like you are suffocating backwards. As we got to safer footing, we started to look back up above us fondly. I didn't really want to leave the mountain. Would have loved to have spent more time up there!

Once we got into some alpine trees, I asked the girls how they were feeling. Nova said it was so much better down here out of the wind and her shivering had stopped. She was a very happy girl once more. Sadly however, Josie, was pouting that we didn't get to play in the snow fields. "Sorry Wolfie" I told her. "Winter is coming, we will play in lots of snow soon." I promised her epic glissades to come.

The last rays of sun, where it was able to pierce the clouds, were thrown over the ground and trees around us, showcasing the deep reds and oranges even more. It was one stunning moment after another......and then I saw it. There was the lake peaking through the trees. There was still a small amount of water in the "bathtub". We ran down to it, excited to have finally found the hidden lake!

The idea of taking a dip ended when I saw it was rather green and murky. Felt like this was an algae moment of death and so I didn't even let the girls get near it. But we sat for a moment on a large rock and soaked in the accomplishment of finding the lake and making it up the spur in one epic loop. I was feeling immensely warm so didn't bother putting on my coat for our night hike out. But I did pull out some caramel M & M's from my pocket in celebration. Sadly, I found them frozen solid and stuffed them back in my pocket so as not to break a tooth. Guess Nova and I weren't the only frozen ones up here I realized.

When we did finally pop out from the hidden lake trail to a lower section of trail, I realized just how hidden that lake was. I never, in a million years, would have found that trail. It was truly a secret path laying deeply within and behind trees. It was like a magic act to step out from that tree-line. I want to go back and hide there and do it when someone comes along to just see if I can scare another hiker into a heart attack. Better yet, I should make the Wolf do it! I can already hear the gasps of fright. Oh, I am not a very nice person. But I think I am okay with that.

I watched the sun ring the trees as we went and many miles later, watched a very full and very orange moon rise to my East. About that time, in the fields of blueberries, my torch caught two sets of eyes staring up at us. We froze. I could see that the eyes were high off the ground and on creatures whose eyes lay far apart. These were no bunny rabbits. The trail was going to take us to within probably 15-20 feet of the wide eyed creatures who were slowly blinking, but never taking their eyes off us. "Well this will be fun," I said to myself as we slowly moved towards them, assuming they were a pair of bears. They were not moving. But as we got close enough to flank them, their heads swiveled to follow our movements. It was then, while standing so close, that I could finally see what they were in the dim light of my flashlight. They were just two giant Does stunned by my lights and the sight of a Wolf in a harness and dog with a purple scarf. "Clearly I need a brighter flashlight" I thought to myself while chuckling the rest of the way to the truck. Alas, no bear encounters after dark. Just as well. When I got to my truck it was raining and my body temp was 94.2 degrees. That makes two weeks in a row. Must be my lucky number this month. At least I had a thermos of hot apple cider waiting and the drive out wouldn't be bad in the dark! It is the little things that count for me.

"From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised,"

Psalm 113:3,