Doe Lake

The next day of our backpack trip was our layover day, except it wasn't a real layover day.  Instead, we hiked from Sister Lake cross-country to Doe Lake.

We did get a late start, though.  When we woke up in the morning, it was cold.  The little ponds of melt water nestled among the rocky slopes around our camp had frozen over during the night.  Oh, and so did any open water on the lake.  Fortunately, the snow's surface froze in a rough texture that allowed us to move freely on it.  And, as soon as the sun came over the western ridge, the air warmed about 30 degrees in just moments.

We spent most of our long morning doing laundry.  Then, Dad and I hiked over to the outlet of Sister Lake to catch a glimpse of Smedberg Lake.  It was a very pretty lake.

 

After we got back, we packed up and headed out.  The route to Doe Lake is pretty simple, but we were confronted by a lot of snow and one creek crossing.  I elected to jump the creek, but everyone else waded through a quite deep pool.

 

The hardest part of the day was finding our way down the hill between the creek crossing and Doe Lake.  This was all cross-country, so we didn't expect to find a trail (though there was an occasional use trail), but the snow complicated a slippery wooded slope significantly.  Doe Lake itself is also somewhat difficult to navigate around because it's bounded by granite cliffs  We eventually found a campsite on the northern edge of the lake, near the route we'd take the next day into Slide Canyon.  After setting up camp, I broke out my fishing pole, and Libby cooled her heels in the lake.

Dad caught the biggest back-country fish he'd ever caught here when he was a young 'un, and so I had high hopes to repeat the feat.  I was a bit disappointed, though, as the fish were generally scarce.  I caught two, and they were big for the backcountry, but not very big over-all.  One was about 12".  From what I could see of the fish around the outlet, they were all above average in size, but none was enormous.

That afternoon after fishing, we were treated to the booming of a nearby Sooty Grouse!  We followed the deceptive sound, but couldn't locate the bird.  It seemed to be located atop a cliff above our camp.  We enjoyed the numerous Pine Grosbeaks around the camp, though, and Libby got some good looks at them while I was fishing.

That night we had fish for dinner, and enjoyed yet another campfire!

More pictures at Flickr.