Around Castle and Basin

Second Lunch spot
Picture from Frank

Morning Meadow beyond turnoff to Summit Lake

Six of us parked on the Castle Valley stub road and cross-countried over to the PCT behind the I-80 rest stop.  From there we left the PTC at the Warren Lake Trail.  We were doing the same hike around the two peaks that we had done last year except in reverse.  We hiked up to the pass below Frog Lake overlook and down into the bowl that is home to Warren, Paradise, and Devil's Oven Lakes, stopping for lunch before the steeper descent.  Crossing quite a few streams at the bottom, we were thankful we didn't have to cross wherever it was that they converged as we could hear roaring water down the valley.  Flowers, green bushes, and bird sound were abundant in the valley.  After several wet crossings, we headed steeply up the other side and along the edge of the cirque under Castle, and then Basin Peaks.  There were quite a few slippery snow-bank areas and no evidence of any hikers the whole time we were in the cirque.  Snow footprints, if there were any, had disappeared.  Finding where the trail emerged from the snow was sometimes tricky.  At one point the water was running with such force out of the snow bank, that we decided to try John's new mini water filter and re-fill our water supplies.  A couple of people didn't bother with the filter as we figured just why it would have giardia in the first place.  The snow bank was high on the mountain and probably pretty pristine. 

We stopped for a second lunch at the overlook on the other side of the cirque where we ate lunch last year.  The view of the valley was magically stunning with its twisted trees, lakes, and surrounding rocky outcroppings under the higher peaks.  Heading back through the heather, we lost the trail completely and divided into two groups - one headed for the trail coming off of Basin, and the other headed down to the PCT.  We met up again a short while later where the two converged. 

Once on the PCT, we started meeting thru hikers.  They seem pretty plentiful and we figured that in a few weeks we would be seeing a huge amount of them.  They are largely quite young, although we did meet an older fellow.  Most were solo hikers and appeared to have more equipment than the ones we met last week.  Peter Grubb Hut is re-opened and looks great.  Inside were two more hikers. 

We saw quite a few flowers in high elevation boggy areas which I mis-identified as Camas Lilies.  They were Sierra Lewisia or Bitterroot.  We saw Skyrocket, Stickseed, Wallflower, Shooting Star, Mule's Ears, Lupines, etc. 

We had hiked about 12 miles with about a 2400 ft. elevation gain. 







Bitterroot