Had this trip planned since spring, a fun alpine lake with a buddy and our (4) boys. Watching the fires during the weeks leading up (foreshadowing) and were feeling pretty good.
The day came to hit the trails and off we went. It was an evening hike in, about 3.8 miles, w/ a chunk of it off trail.
The boys did great and we got there right at sun down.
As you can see, it's a really healthy lake. Paedomorphic salamanders (I think) and frogs everywhere.
Next morning we took it pretty easy. Mostly eating, had a huge breakfast, and exploring around the lake. Fished a bit right when we woke up, had one take my dry but it came unpinned. We did get one in the net though.
One of the spots we hiked up to had clear views of rainier, st helens and adams. Cool spot.
The lake was alive with wildlife all morning. There were a few (what I think were) Hoary Marmots calling back and forth. Some deer paid us a visit. Vibes were goooood, and stoke was high - we had planned on being up there for 3 more days - everyone was feeling good about how things were shaping up.....
These two photos were taken less than 30 seconds apart:
But then (as life does), we were thrown a curveball. It started with a couple younger guys popping in from up the hill, which was a little weird, because the two guys had 3 back packs with them. Strange, but we kept on with our day, as did they - they set up tents on the other side of the lake from us. At that point the sun had really been beating on us and the kids were swimming (they found a spot to jump off a small rock). A few more hours passed and we were making a mix of ground bison and venison with melted american cheese (don't knock it until you try it) for dinner and getting ready to fish the evening bite. That's when two other guys showed up on the hill. They were shouting down to the other two guys and we heard them say something like "we gotta go now - there's a fire!".
Fuck.
It's a small lake, so we can all hear their conversation perfectly, and what we hear is them talk about how they heard from someone on the PCT that there's a new fire and they're telling people to get out of the area NOW. They apparently were scrambling down to where their buddies were (on the lake) and on the way down saw the fire, and was by their estimation very close to where we were.
At this point it's about 5:30PM and we are half through cooking dinner and haven't really fished much. I turn to my buddy and talk through a plan - he's going to go talk to them to get some more info, and bring a map to see if they can point to where the fire is (we wanted to know if we could get out the way we came in), and I'd start tidying things up around camp so we can exit quickly if needed.
My buddy rows the packraft over to them and chats for a few minutes. As he gets back, one of the kids says, "i smell smoke". We did too. The other goes, "it's getting hazy", it was. The air had definitely picked up a haze, sun was turning a little bit orange.
We were talking through two options: first being hike up the hill to get eyes on the fire so we could make sure we weren't hiking out into the fire. The second option was to just GTFO ASAP.
We opted to do a little recon so we could be sure we weren't hiking into the fire. As we were hiking up the side hill by the lake, we started to hear a helicopter. It was getting really close. We saw it appear and watched it's location as best as possible, but it was staying low. Then another helicopter. And then another. 6 helicopters all within 10ish minutes. And they were close, max a mile and a half. It was up and around the hill from us, so we had a clear route out, which was good.
It was a this point we realized the littlest of the 4 boys was no longer having fun and in fact was terrified. Having heard the entire conversation the other 4 guys were having (and their conversation was not calm, the other dudes were freaking out), smelling the smoke and seeing the copters, he got freaked out. Time to go.
We got back to camp and started packing up. I didn't time it, but I'm certain I set a PB for quickest camp pack up ever.
Hit the trail out at 7PM and were down to the truck by 9PM. Boys had a blast hiking in the dark the last 30 minutes, and once we were safely down below the fire on the trail, the littlest boy cheered back up.
When we got back into cell service I checked onx, to see if the fire was mapped yet - it was. 4.5 hour drive home and back in the driveway by 1:30AM.
I had my calendar clear, so we went out and fished some local lakes the next evening. Good times were had. Obviously not the same as being at the lake, but we had fun with the cards we were delt.
Bummer having to cut the trip short, but overall I think the kids learned some good lessons. And while we didn't get to fish nearly as much as we had planned, as a group we didn't get skunked - so we got that going for us. My boys made me promise I'd take them back, to which I obviously agreed, having been to that lake a few times prior I'm always happy to hear the kids being that excited about a place that I love to visit.
The day came to hit the trails and off we went. It was an evening hike in, about 3.8 miles, w/ a chunk of it off trail.
The boys did great and we got there right at sun down.
As you can see, it's a really healthy lake. Paedomorphic salamanders (I think) and frogs everywhere.
Next morning we took it pretty easy. Mostly eating, had a huge breakfast, and exploring around the lake. Fished a bit right when we woke up, had one take my dry but it came unpinned. We did get one in the net though.
One of the spots we hiked up to had clear views of rainier, st helens and adams. Cool spot.
The lake was alive with wildlife all morning. There were a few (what I think were) Hoary Marmots calling back and forth. Some deer paid us a visit. Vibes were goooood, and stoke was high - we had planned on being up there for 3 more days - everyone was feeling good about how things were shaping up.....
These two photos were taken less than 30 seconds apart:
But then (as life does), we were thrown a curveball. It started with a couple younger guys popping in from up the hill, which was a little weird, because the two guys had 3 back packs with them. Strange, but we kept on with our day, as did they - they set up tents on the other side of the lake from us. At that point the sun had really been beating on us and the kids were swimming (they found a spot to jump off a small rock). A few more hours passed and we were making a mix of ground bison and venison with melted american cheese (don't knock it until you try it) for dinner and getting ready to fish the evening bite. That's when two other guys showed up on the hill. They were shouting down to the other two guys and we heard them say something like "we gotta go now - there's a fire!".
Fuck.
It's a small lake, so we can all hear their conversation perfectly, and what we hear is them talk about how they heard from someone on the PCT that there's a new fire and they're telling people to get out of the area NOW. They apparently were scrambling down to where their buddies were (on the lake) and on the way down saw the fire, and was by their estimation very close to where we were.
At this point it's about 5:30PM and we are half through cooking dinner and haven't really fished much. I turn to my buddy and talk through a plan - he's going to go talk to them to get some more info, and bring a map to see if they can point to where the fire is (we wanted to know if we could get out the way we came in), and I'd start tidying things up around camp so we can exit quickly if needed.
My buddy rows the packraft over to them and chats for a few minutes. As he gets back, one of the kids says, "i smell smoke". We did too. The other goes, "it's getting hazy", it was. The air had definitely picked up a haze, sun was turning a little bit orange.
We were talking through two options: first being hike up the hill to get eyes on the fire so we could make sure we weren't hiking out into the fire. The second option was to just GTFO ASAP.
We opted to do a little recon so we could be sure we weren't hiking into the fire. As we were hiking up the side hill by the lake, we started to hear a helicopter. It was getting really close. We saw it appear and watched it's location as best as possible, but it was staying low. Then another helicopter. And then another. 6 helicopters all within 10ish minutes. And they were close, max a mile and a half. It was up and around the hill from us, so we had a clear route out, which was good.
It was a this point we realized the littlest of the 4 boys was no longer having fun and in fact was terrified. Having heard the entire conversation the other 4 guys were having (and their conversation was not calm, the other dudes were freaking out), smelling the smoke and seeing the copters, he got freaked out. Time to go.
We got back to camp and started packing up. I didn't time it, but I'm certain I set a PB for quickest camp pack up ever.
Hit the trail out at 7PM and were down to the truck by 9PM. Boys had a blast hiking in the dark the last 30 minutes, and once we were safely down below the fire on the trail, the littlest boy cheered back up.
When we got back into cell service I checked onx, to see if the fire was mapped yet - it was. 4.5 hour drive home and back in the driveway by 1:30AM.
I had my calendar clear, so we went out and fished some local lakes the next evening. Good times were had. Obviously not the same as being at the lake, but we had fun with the cards we were delt.
Bummer having to cut the trip short, but overall I think the kids learned some good lessons. And while we didn't get to fish nearly as much as we had planned, as a group we didn't get skunked - so we got that going for us. My boys made me promise I'd take them back, to which I obviously agreed, having been to that lake a few times prior I'm always happy to hear the kids being that excited about a place that I love to visit.
