This past weekend (July 22-23) was the second annual backpacking trip with Elizabeth and Lucas!  We headed to the Anderson and Watson Lakes in the mountains east of Baker Lake.

We were out of the house around 8:30 am and made a quick stop for Gatorade, snacks, and bug dope.  Now that we were on the way, I informed them that if we forgot anything, we would just have to do without.  Sure enough, I would eat those words a half hour later when I realized I forgot perhaps the only thing I could NOT do without . . . my glasses and extra contacts.  I am virtually blind without them so I apologized profusely and promptly made a U-turn.

 

The drive to the trailhead (the extra trip back to the house excluded) was two hours long, took us over the Baker Lake dam, and ended with 10 miles on a bumpy, potholed Forest Service road.  We were on the trail at 12:45pm and stopped shortly thereafter for lunch.

   

 

The three mile hike to the Watson Lakes went smoothly.  The trail was in good condition – only one patch of snow that was easy to cross and only a few really muddy spots that were tricky for the kids.  We got to the eastern Watson Lake around 4:30pm and found all the established campsites taken – not that much of a surprise for that late on a Saturday.  It was only a minor disappointment.  We backtracked to the western Watson Lake and got a beautiful site right on the water and had the whole lake to ourselves!

  

We made camp and had chili frito pies for dinner.  The lake was crystal clear and we could see a half dozen rainbow trout, probably 10-12”, swimming about so we excitedly tried our hand a fishing.  This was the first time spin casting for Elizabeth and Lucas!  I helped Lucas and he enjoyed it well enough but preferred to be the fish spotter from up on the rock.  I only helped Elizabeth once or twice and she took it from there – she’s a natural and loved it.  (Only lost one lure 🙂  The fish were generally uninterested in our lures, though, and we didn’t catch anything.

      

We headed back to the eastern Watson Lake to explore for a couple hours before sunset.  There were a couple water crossings via log jams but that didn’t stop us.  The views of the lake, Bacon Peak, and the rock cliffs with gushing waterfalls were stunning.  The campsites at this lake are no doubt always in high demand.  There were at least seven groups at this end of the lake and one could be seen at the far eastern end too.  One of those groups included coworker Quinn and his son and work acquaintance Andrew and his family (although Andrew was out fly fishing when we came by).  That was a fun coincidence!

Back at camp we played a couple card games of war – Luke won both – before going to bed.  We left the rain fly half off so we could enjoy the view of the lake from inside our tent and hoped to enjoy views of the stars on a moonless night.

Instead of stars we got rain.  Just a sprinkle, really, but on went the fly in the middle of the night.  We woke up to sun, though, and the day over all was much clearer than yesterday.  Elizabeth was back at fishing first thing but still no luck.  The morning was leisurely and we didn’t leave until about 11:30am.

We had plans to take the one mile roundtrip side trail to Anderson Lake and try to find a geocache there that hadn’t been logged in years.  However, the trail proved to be too muddy for us so we gave up and rested in a pretty meadow for lunch.

 

The remainder of the hike flew by.  The nice weather had me hoping to see Mt. Baker from the large meadow at the middle of the hike but alas, the mountain was shrouded in clouds.  We were back to the car at 3:30pm and for the drive home Elizabeth finished reading aloud the book I Survived the Great Chicago Fire.  Our post hike feast decided by popular vote? . . . McDonalds :/

The kids are troopers – they kept a good pace through the ups and downs and handled the trail obstacles in stride.  And no complaining!  They both loved the new backpacks – loaded mainly with their sleeping bag and clothes, they weighed in at 8 lbs for Lucas and 12 lbs for Elizabeth, who also had her sleeping pad among other things.  This seemed to be very manageable weights for them (this is after relieving them of their Platypus of water early on).  Looks like we have a couple of backpackers!