Anticipation Fulfilled
October 14th, 2008 by TheDaver
I’m back down from my little adventure to the Trinity Alps. Here are some thoughts/details on the trip:
- The mountains/rivers/streams/views/trees were even better than I had hoped. See a small sampling of photos below.
-It can get COLD in the mountains in October at night. Say, in the high teens, low 20’s cold. On Thursday night we crawled in our sleeping bags at 7:30 p.m. just to stay warm, and didn’t come out until 9:06 a.m. the next day (when the sun finally hit our tent.) By the way, it snowed just a bit on us.
- According to Jeff’s watch, we hiked a total of just under 30 hours. My best guess is we covered around 35 to 40 miles in all.
- I’d say just about half of the trip was uphill. Sometimes BIG uphill. If you want to get up in the mountains, you have to uphill (words to live by.) I held up OK physically, but there were times I just wanted to sit down and cry.
- No bears. Good and bad on that point.
- Going off-trail is fun, and a bit nerve-wracking. Same for boulder-hopping.
- A good map and, as in this case, a good guide book are indispensable.
- It’s a bad thing to over-pack when backpacking. It’s probably worse to under-pack.
- 5 days without a shower stinks (get it?) 3 days without brushing my teeth was a conscious decision.
- Mountain stream water, in October, is cold. Too cold for swimming. But it’s beautiful!
- Following mountain rivers to their headwaters, and the lakes that reside there, is a very, very rewarding thing to do.
- My friend Jeff is still quite the liberal, but the kind of liberal I like.
- I love backpacking and camping! Why don’t I do this more often?
Now for some photos:
As I said, you gotta go uphill to get in the mountains.
Part of Canyon Creek, in a calm moment.
Panorama of Lower Canyon Creek Lake (several photos stitched together in Photoshop.)
Forbidden Lake: a really great place, but hard to get to. Worth the scrambling and bushwacking.
Boulder Creek Lake (one of several little “ponds” that make up the Lakes).
Lower Canyon Creek Lake from the south end.
I’ll post more thoughts and photos on the trip soon.
5 days without showering… weak.
How do you do Panoramic Photoshopping so well?
Well, Kenneth, it’s easy. Take the photos knowing you’ll make a panorama (overlap the edges, use the same exposure settings, keep the camera on the same axis/point when shooting.) Open photoshop CS3 (7.0 doesn’t have this, don’t know about CS2.) Go to File >> Automate >> Photomerge. select the photos you want to merge, and the style you want (perspective, barrel, flat, etc.) The program does the rest. Afterward, I go in with the Healing and Clone brushes to clean up boundaries and other visible flaws.
It’s as easy as beating Texas when you’re No. 1 in the country.
Come on, 5 days without a shower while the entire day is spent hiking and sweating? That’s a LITTLE bit of manliness, right?
Hello Daver,
Great photos–made me really miss the Trinity Alps.
I’ve done Canyon Creek Lakes and Boulder Lakes several times, but not recently. Perhaps next summer.
Did you get to Ell Lake above Upper Canyon Creek Lake? It’s very pretty with far fewer people during the peak summer weekends.
There’s also Kalmia Lake, a cross-country climb from near Ell. It has stunning views of Wedding Cake and Thompson Peak.
Ok, 5 days is pretty ripe.
Thanks for the Photoshop help. Never knew that feature existed…
Great to get the update. I will show your nephews when they get home and the photos are beautiful. 5 days bothers me less than the conscious decision.