Island and Crooked Lakes

Spirea was growing everywhere

 Four of us braved the extreme heat hoping for cooler weather in the high country and a cool lake for swimming.  We were rewarded with hot but breezy air - not nearly as HOT as town.
We headed up to Carr/Feeley, expecting there to be no parking July 3rd during the heat wave.  Once again we were pleasantly rewarded with a mostly empty lot. 

Arriving at Island Lake we went counter-clockwise around the lake on the Round Lake Trail.  When we got near to LongLake we headed cross-country, not seeing a real trail until later in the afternoon when we hit the Penner Trail.  We wandered around, up and down, seeking shade for lunch.  When we finally found it by a Crooked Lake, we lingered to enjoy the view and dragon flies for quite a while in the cool breeze. 

Cross Country almost the whole time

We continued to find the various Crooked Lakes seeing no one since Feeley Lake except a couple of distant hikers towards the end.  At the largest Crooked Lake, we paused to look at a large backpack that someone had ditched along with a very thick book, The Life of Mahatma Ghandi.  We were duly impressed and suddenly heard quite a few voices beyond the bushes.  Suddenly we were upon a teenage camp with a couple of worried counselors.  That backpack had belonged to a counselor who was overdue from retrieving something from their lunch spot.  They were sending out a search party of one counselor until Akiko warned them that there should always be two.  All the boys wanted to go with the counselor - she quietly tried to tell the counselor that one was enough but to no avail.  We left and followed the lake around and through the forest to the Penner Trail. 

Steep Up

At the peninsula in Island Lake, we headed out to go swimming.  All four of us got in.  Feeling refreshed we headed out.  Once again we saw no one until some campers at the bottom of Island Lake and then again a party at the parking lot. 

Yes, that is them in the picture.  They were seriously praying that they would make it and asked us to do the same.  One guy said they were big eaters.  I guess.

We will head to some place where there is a lake next week.  Richardson Lake from Barker Pass?      



Fall Creek Mtn



One of the Crookeds

Another Crooked where we ate lunch



Turquoise Dragon flies were very busy mating

Steep Down - holding that rock for a reason



Another Crooked

Same Lake as above



another Crooked

Campers



Storm Brewing Somewhere

Island Lake where we swam



Not long for this world

They had to walk 2 miles and only staying 3 nights!! 
Guy on right wearing holey bedroom slippers.