Boulder Lake: I Keep Myself So Lifted I Am Accustomed To New Heights

Head of Boulder Creek

So this weekend I had planned on doing an overnighter up into Wildhorse to hit a few lakes. Some of those lakes I have been to and a few of them I have not. I have been to a few for work but ones that I get paid for I don't count for my overall total number of lakes I have been to in the Lost River Ranger District. So far I have been to about 41 lakes and I have three lakes left to go to; Boulder and Washington being two of those three. The idea on Friday was to hike to Boulder Lake and fish for a bit and then proceed to go find Washington Lake.

Devils Bedstead Right

Boulder Lake

When I woke up Friday I was think about the day ahead of me and all of a sudden I remembered that there is a big stream crossing and it was going to be cold. So after thinking about that stream crossing my morning slowed down a bit knowing that I would have to cross one of the coldest streams on the district early in the morning. Ever since I got diabetes, stream crossings have gotten harder for me. I always have to be careful not to cut my feet up on the stream bed and about halfway through the stream all the blood rushes to my core making me feel shaky like I have low blood sugar. But after debating whether or not to leave my shoes on and cross or take them off I final took my shoes off and fought through the pain but I'm glad I took my shoes off because I hate walking in wet shoes all day.

Wolverine Print

Wolverine Tracks

The rest of the morning went pretty good. My legs felt solid even after a long week of busting out miles of trail work and going 10 miles the day before packing a chainsaw. I cruised up to the lake a lot faster then I had expected. When I got up to the lake it was just getting hit by the sun, perfect time for the fish to start feeding but that wasn't the case. They where feeding but they where also getting ready to spawn so they didn't want anything to do with me and after an hour of a few bites here and there I just continued to let them do there thing and moved on to find Washington Lake.

Boulder Creek

Little Boulder Lake, Unofficial Name

Devils Bedstead 11865 ft

Long-toed Salamander

Long-toed Salamander

From Boulder Lake the plan was to wrap around the mountain and just sidehill all the way to Washington Lake but that was easier said then done. I'm always worried about getting cliffed out on this rocky terrain because once you get cliffed out you lose all that hard work that you did keeping that elevation and even gaining some in the mean time. Well sure enough I did get cliffed out and finally had to make the smart decision and just drop down and go around the cliffs. This took longer then I thought and wiped me out. Once I got above the first ledge where the waterfalls were, I was tired enough to the point that I would probably hurt my chances off getting to Airplane and Arrowhead the following day. So I made the smart decision that costed me the opportunity of knocking Washington Lake off my list.

I only hiked a bit longer until I looked around and saw a bench where a lake could sit but my maps didn't show the lake sitting under the Devils Bedstead so I figured it wasn't going to be up there. I looked behind me and spotted a lake that I felt confident it was it, mainly because I didn't want to hike up to that bench, so I decided that was the lake. When I arrived to the lake there was no fish to been seen but I did see a ton of salamanders that took me by surprise. I didn't think that they could live that high up in a mountain lake but there was a ton of them so they must be doing well. On the way out I began having problems with a tight IT band. It has been acting up every once in awhile but I have been able to push through it. As I continued to walk out it just wouldn't go away and kept getting worse, so by the time I reached the trail head I decided to opt out of the Airplane and Arrowhead trip to try and focus on this problem so I could run in my upcoming races in a few weeks. When I got back to my car I pulled out my Backpacker TOPO and saw that I was about 100 yards from Washington Lake. With that being said I still want to go back up to Washington Lake and would still love to do Airplane and Arrowhead in a day. With those trips, I have a good excuse to go back to Wildhorse.

Devils Bedstead

Wildhorse Canyon

Lakes of the Lost River Ranger District

Swauger Lake                     Long Lake                       Clear Lake                            Wildhorse Lake #5

Pass Lake                            Rough Lake                     Bellas Lake                          Wildhorse Lake #6

Merriam Lake                      Big Lake                          Bellas Lake #2                     Wildhorse Lake #7

Carlson Lake                       Golden Lake                    Fall Creek Lake                   Wildhorse Lake #8

Corral Lake                          Green Lake                      Fall Creek Lake #2              Boulder Lake

Fishpole Lake                      Starhope Lake                 Angel Lake                           Kane Lake

Iron Bog Lake                      Baptie Lake                     Moose Lake                         Grant Creek Lake

Bobber Lake                        Goat Lake                       Moose Lake #2                     Lehman Lake

Brockie Lake                       Betty Lake                       Arrowhead Lake

Round Lake                         Bench Lake                      Airplane Lake

Gone to But Doesnt Have Fish

Surprise Valley Lake #1

Surprise Valley Lake #2

Bellas Lake #3

Still Left To Do

Washington Lake

Big Fall Creek Lake

Fall Creek Loop: Before I Lose My Mind

Head of Fall Creek

Fall Creek Lake #1

Fall Creek Lake #1

After every big race that I run I always take two weeks off of any running for rest but by the end of two weeks I'm just itching to go out for some long miles. So this week after our long road trip I needed to get out and get some miles in before I lose my mind. Since our trip didn't go the way we planned we ended it early, so at the last minute I decided to do the Fall Creek Loop. I have been wanting to do this trip for the last couple of years now and have done it but I wanted to do it all in one day because we did it in one day 13 years ago when I was about 10 years old. Its a hard loop to do with 3500 feet of elevation gain and decent over about 13 miles but I knew I could do it with all my ultra marathon training and racing background.

Fall Creek Lake #2

Fall Creek Lake #2

I wanted to start pretty early because it was hot the day before and it was going to be hot that day too, so I started at the trail head at 7 and I didn't get hit by the sun until 9, an hour later and I was at the first lake. What I love about Fall Creek is all the amazing views and how you never seem to run into anyone. When I left this morning there was 8 cars parked at the trail head and I only saw five people all day. But going to some remote places also helps. When I was hiking up to the head of Fall Creek I'm always on the lookout for mountain goats because its prime area for them; rocky cliffs, a few meadows and no people to worry about. I was also thinking that if I ever went hermit this would be the place where I would live. I would catch me a baby mountain goat and raise it as my own. We would hike all day over the Pioneers until one of us dies and I would be know as the man with a mountain goat. Just some food for thought, maybe after college.

Mountain Goats Point of View

Angel Lake

Angel Lake

West

North

East

When I finished the loop, it wasn't as tough as I thought it would be and I wasn't even that tired. When I got home I was comparing it to my recent ultra race and I would have to do the Fall Creek Loop twice to even come close to the elevation gain of the River of No Return 50K, and three times for the elevation gain of my upcoming race Wild Idaho. Over the years I have always been thinking about a unique race that I could come up with and this loop would be perfect for it. This race would consist of two things; running and fishing. In this race you would have to run the distant but you would have to stop at every lake and catch a fish before you could move on. I somewhat gave it a try today. I was able to catch a fish at every lake in a matter of minutes but I continued to fish because I needed to enjoy myself somehow don't I. If it was a race my time would be 10 hours, I started at the trail head at 7am and got done at 5pm, can anyone beat that?

Standhopes 60K Monster

Ultra Training

Moose Lakes

Moose Lake #2

Moose Lake

Golden At Fall Creek #1

Cutbow At Fall Creek #2

Cutbow At Angel Lake

Brookie At Moose Lake #2

Brookie At Moose Lake

After the day was over I was thinking on the car ride home about how light my backpack was and how it didn't weigh me down at all. So I thought I would write a list of what I had and what improvements I could make on it and some things I could add to make it into a lightweight overnighter. So here is what I have so far and on the side I wrote what I used. My pack weighed a total of 15 pounds and with my overnighter stuff it weighed at 20 pounds. I'm interested to give it a try, maybe this weekend if I can get someone to go with me.

My Lightweight Backpack Gear

Lightweight Backpack List
Gregory Z30--Used
Clothing:
Stoic Vaporshell Rain Jacket
Patagonia Down Jacket
Saucony River of No Return Jacket--Used
Minnesota Twins Hat
Gear:
Two Salmon-Challis Maps
Small Notebook with Pens--Used
Ruler/Earplugs
First Aid Kit--Used
TP/Sunscreen/Bodyglide/Chapstick--Used
Camera/Tripod--Used
Two Knifes/Fire starter
Para cord/Sunglasses
Ipod Nano/Yurbuds Ironman Headphones--Used
Petzl Headlamp
Wallet
Katadyn Water Filter--Used
Fishing Gear:
2x/3x Tippet--Used
Flybox--Used
Forceps
8wt Flyrod--Used
Food:
Nalgene 32oz--Used
Two PPJ Sandwiches
Two Poptarts
Two Granola Bars
Trail Mix
Pudding
One GU Brew Tablet

Stuff For Overnighter
Sleeping Bag
Sleeping Pad
3M Plastic Tarp
Pocket Rocket/Fuel
GSI Halulite Minimalist

Narrow Rough Road

Crater Lake

Maps can be a funny thing sometimes. They can either get you to the right place are completely get you to the wrong place. They can also led you up a narrow rough road but they will never say that it is a rough road. But the thing with narrow rough roads is that they can take you to really remote beautiful places and those are the places that you want to be on a busy weekend like the Fourth of July. This weekend we had planned on going in to the White Clouds for a few days but some people that we had invited couldn't make it so we postponed for a later date. So instead my father and I had planned a long road trip to a few lakes where we could either car camp at or at least day hike into them.

The White Clouds

Are first lake that we went to or tried to get to was Crater Lake. When we got to the top of Railroad Ridge the views there where out of this world, or should I say out of Idaho because you could see into Montana. You could also look over at the Lost Rivers, Pioneers and a big portion of the Frank Church. Going back to the map it says we could go over the top of Railroad Ridge and drop down into Crater Lake, well after trying a few routes and roads that petered off or still have snow on them we made the smart decision and turned around. On to the next lake we went.

Views From Railroad Ridge

A Few Elk

Part of Livingston Mine

By the time we got to Bayhorse, it was about six hours of driving and zero hours of fishing, something is not right here. By the time I walked around the lake of Bayhorse I hooked into three fish and most of the time was spent fighting off bait fisherman so we booked out of there in order to get to Spruce Gulch before sunset.

Bayhorse Lake

Challis Through The Burnt Trees

Another three and a half hours of driving and an hour an a half of hike we made it to Spruce Gulch for an hour of fishing with no such luck of catching a tiger muskie or even seeing one. Another two hours of fishing in the morning with only seeing three tiger muskie, two follow and none swallowed. Theirs too many hours being put into tiger muskie fishing without any hook up or take. It makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong but I'm not going to give up. I do feel like that when I do catch bigger fish its based purely on luck, luck of being in the right spot at the right time. But my luck continues to increase by the amount of time I spend on the water and the amount of time my fly is in the water. The thing that I could take away from Spruce Gulch is that I am getting really good at taking pictures of tiger muskie, I now just need to get one out of the water.

Spruce Gulch Lake

Twin Peaks Lookout

As I worked with Phil this week and got to know him a little better. It was cool to hear all his amazing stories and adventures. After talking to him I realized that I would love to read a book about this guy, but after taking a step back and realizing that Phil and I are about the same person. Part of the reason I am writing this blog is to remember all the good times that I have had and have had the opportunity to share with others.

Spruce Gulch

Why do I succeed?

I succeed because I am willing to do the things you are not. I will fight against the odds. I will sacrifice. I am not shackled by fear, insecurity or doubt. I feel those emotions but I drink them in and then swallow them away to the blackness of hell. I am motivated by accomplishment, not pride. Pride consumes the weak and kills their heart from within. If I fall... I will get up. If I am beaten... I will return. I will never stop getting better. I will never give up... EVER.

That is why I succeed.--Unkown