Wagon Wheel Lake, the prettiest I have ever seen it |
I woke up at 5:30 and was at the trail head by 7:20, but no one was at the trailhead so I figured that
7:30 must have been the carpool meet up time.
At 7:40 I left a note on the trail head sign to inform the others, if they
arrived that I was on the trail and getting a head start. I was not having a high energy day, so I was
glad to get a head start. I had not completly recovered from doing
Mount Rose just two days before, I had been suffering from sinus issues last
week and my intestines were giving me fits. To put it briefly, I was
not in top hiking form.
I spotted a dear peeking up at me though the woods, I don't know how I spotted it. I tried to take a good picture of it but that was difficult in the dark woods.
I was gaining about
900 feet an hour as I headed up the trail, I was not feeling good and I was moving slow.
After I had gained about 3,000 feet I had a sudden attack of intestinal
issues but I decided to put it off. Just
then a voice from down below yelled “hello!”.
It was Doug Savage from the meet up group. I had heard of Doug many times when I was a member of the
PWC and it was nice to finally meet him.
Doug told me that everyone else who was hoping to come had
bailed and he had not been up Copper Mountain in 20 years. He said given the fog, that he would be just as happy to go to the
ridge above the lake.. But I really wanted to go up
Copper and I had my GPS with a topo map and some experience in the area, so we agreed to try for Copper. Doug had
started out an hour and ten minutes later than I had, so he was rather puffed
from catching up to me. We stopped at
the lake to have a snack before we began bushwhacking.
Doug wanted to go the long way around the lake, I did not
think that was the best way, but I let him convince me to go that way
anyway. We had to climb over a lot of
brush and it was a longer route around the lake, but it was not too bad. We headed up the ridge towards the long side
hilling section. I had the flags that I found
on my last trip up way pointed in my GPS and we used those waypoints for
guidance.
Working our way around the lake |
Sidehilling off trail |
Soon we reached the saddle where I had turned back last
time. Everything was enveloped in
fog. We could not see the summit. We sat down on a lovely lichen covered rock
to look at the map and the climbing guide. We saw some tracks in the snow, they were
contouring below the summit but it was hard to tell where the tracks ended in the fog. Where did the tracks go up, we wondered.
Doug decided to head straight up the snow chute on the right
and into the notch. The chute was steep
but not too scary since there was a very nice run out below us if one of us were to fall. When we reached the top of the notch the
route was unclear. I thought maybe we
should contour below the ridge onto the south side.
Doug did not like that route, he thought the route was straight up the
rock and onto a ledge. It looked doable
to me but I did not want to do 500 feet of that! After going up just a few feet Doug said he
was done. The rock wall was forcing him
to the edge and it was scary. I tried
the same route and agreed. So that is
where we turned around. Just 500 feet
short of the summit.
We stopped here |
The trip down was fast, Doug flew down the snow section, I
took my time trying to keep my footing.
I think a Glissade might have been nice to try there. In no time we were back down to the lake
where we took about a ten minute break before we headed back down the steep
trail.
I do not like the Wagon Wheel Lake trail, it is steep and
viewless and the forest is less than stellar. The lake is not that great either. Oh well at least it’s a good work out.
I felt rushed most of the day, so my pictures are not so great and I did not know it, but I had left my camera set to manual focus after taking pictures of the deer at the start of the trail. All of my pictures are a little out of focus as a result.
9.6 miles 4,400 feet elevation gain
Thrashing through slide alder and devils club on the lake shore |
Wagon Wheel lake was just 2/3rds of the hike |
Ice Axe time |
Lunch time view |
On the saddle where I stopped last time |
Working towards the notch to the right |
Extreme for a hike but not for a climb |
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