It's Okay Being a Medium Dog

My friend, Heidi, once owned a shirt that said, "If you can't run with the big dogs, then stay on the porch!" She has been hiking and backpacking since childhood, and she's one of the most bad ass people I know. So when I suggested we switch her Tanks Lake trip plans to the extended Alpine Lakes High Route, she of course didn't blink an eye. 

It seemed a logical thing to do. We had three days - so instead of gaining all that difficult elevation and then turning around and going back, why not do the loop and enjoy the high country while we were already up there? We had two cars, so leaving one at each trailhead meant cutting out the three miles of road walking required. In total we would only be adding a couple extra miles to the itinerary while gaining more than twice the amount of scenery. 

The trip reports for this loop made it sound SO amazing...but there were also a few concerning warnings like, "straight up going to kill somebody." Eek. Though maybe those are just namby-pamby "little dogs" yipping. Stay on the porch you babies! ;)

So I turned to my favorite website of NWhikers.net to ask the opinion from the true Big Dogs. The information they gave confirmed that indeed the Alpine Lakes High Route was over my pay grade. I hated wimping out on Heidi after I got her all pumped up for this amazing trail; but I know and accept I'm a medium dog and I don't really aspire to enter the hiker big leagues. Plus Janet was coming along, and though she is a stronger hiker than I am, I was pretty sure several miles of navigating through talus and "brush-covered ledges with cliffs above and below" was going to be out of her comfort zone too. 

Instead we thought we'd try our hand at the smaller "easier" loop suggested by the folks on NW hiker. We could leave our stuff at Tanks and go around the back side up to La Bohn and then down the waterfall and back up again to Tanks. Except after taking a look at that waterfall as we made our original way up to Tanks, we knew that was a hard no. 

Though, what would it hurt to see if we could make it to La Bohn? It was only a couple of miles after all. Medium Dogs should at least be able to do that.

The above picture of Williams Lake is where we waved the white flag. With no real trail to follow and some talus to get over, it took us two hours to go a mile. Go all the way to La Bohn?! HA!!! Can you imagine if we tried to do the full Alpine Lakes High Route with it's 8 mile section of nothing but difficult route finding, talus fields AND 3k of elevation gain? Holy shit, we'd probably still be up there! 

The part of me that really wants to prove it's bad-ass-ness sure got put in it's place on this trip. And that is well and good, because having fun (along with the benefit of not dying!) is much better. You'll find our itinerary for an enjoyable 3 day trip (actually it was 4 days in my case) for anyone else in the medium dog category. Happy "know your limits" trails! 

Sammie wanted to play Lion King ;)

TRAIL LOG:

Day 1) Because I had Saturday off but both Heidi and Janet didn't, I decided to start without them. They would just meet me at my campsite in the morning which was at about 5 miles in.

It took me only two and a half hours to hike it, so I assumed they would do it in just 2. Of course there is zero cell service, but I knew they expected to be starting at 7 am, so I planned to be ready and waiting for them by 9 am.

Day 2) At 9:45 am, there was still no Heidi and Janet, so I assumed there was a problem. I forced myself not to imagine the "they were killed in a car accident" type of situation but a more reasonable "the alarm clock didn't go off" type of situation...but y'know, sometimes it lingers in the back of the head. But whatever the problem was, it wasn't going to help if I just sat there. So I came up with this solution:

I figured they would catch me, because I'm so much slower; so when I made it the 3 miles to Jade Lake with still no sign of them, I began to worry a little. But this is quite a climb of about 2.5k, so they were doing it just as slow as me. In fact, they made it to my campsite just minutes after I left and were not far behind me the whole time!

This gal recognized Sammie! So I made her take a pic to prove I have a fan ;)

Fortunately they knew I was waiting for them at Jade because these nice guys let me use their Garmin to send a message. I know, I know, I just need to bite the bullet and buy one.

Recruiting more Sammie fans, haha. Thanks guys!!

The next mile is a nice break with not much gain and pretty meadows, and then you get to the rock scramble. This turned out to be not as bad as I was expecting, though the hardest part is figuring out the best route because there are many cairns guiding you in different directions. We had a couple young guys coming down advise us to just "go up the gut" which I still have no idea what that means. (Must be a Big Dog term ;) 

When we made it to Tank Lakes I was pretty beat, but Heidi and Janet were extra beat because of their extra miles and very early start. Even so, Janet had the energy to push up the hill on the far side of the lake because she was sure there had to be a good spot up there. Heidi and I were groaning, but we obeyed and followed her up and found she was right. This is about a 12 mile day with 4k if you do it one shot. For me it was only 7, so splitting it up is really nice.

Day 3) We slept in and didn't get going on our day pack outing until 9 am. I don't think any of us were super gung-ho about getting to La Bohn, but we were curious about trying. The challenge of route finding was actually really fun until we hit the serious talus...then it was like "this sucks." 

Making our way back was WAY faster, so we decided to keep going on the Alpine High Route (it goes the opposite direction from the intersection to Tank) and just go as far as felt comfortable. 

Right around Iron Cap Gap felt good enough - maybe a mile? We got back to camp to have plenty of leisure time cooling off by the lake (which we had to ourselves!) and enjoying a cocktail before making dinner...it was so nice to be relaxing and not scrambling over rocks and wondering if we were going to die.

After dinner we felt like exploring more, so we followed the trails that meander out and about. As we were looking at our maps and trying to figure out what lake we were looking down at, we noticed a "Tank Lake" that was up further and behind us. Hummm...this must be what makes it "Tank Lakes" instead of just "Tank Lake." Should we try and find it?

It was actually not that hard, but dang, the mossies up there were super excited we showed up. So after a short photo shoot, we headed back. In total we probably didn't even hit the 5 mile mark, but what a fun day we had.   

Day 4) I taped my knees before we even started because I knew the hammering downhill was going to be murder on them. But of course it was much faster than going up, mostly because we took a different route and eliminated almost half of the rock scramble. We didn't even realize it until I was taking a video of Glacier Peak and saw the rocks we came up were to the right of us. I tried to take videos from then on of the places which would lead you to the easier route, but it really is hard to see unless you are going down. 

AllTrails will get you there, but to the right is easier

But you can watch them on my YouTube if you think it might be helpful. The last five miles felt like forever as we knew they would, but the promise of a burger and beer at The Whistling Post propelled us forward at lightning speed. Except, no burger to be found there; which is probably for the best because I'm trying to eat better due to a bout with diverticulitis. Sucks getting old.  

It still tasted good!

Side note: my friends had the rest of the week off, so while I headed home they were doing the long drive around to the Marmot/Jade/Dip Top hike. But when they went to start the next day, Heidi realized she left her boots in the parking lot at this hike's trailhead. (East Fork Foss/Necklace Valley is where you start to get to Tank Lakes) They were brand new, so if by chance someone finds them, please leave a comment! (UPDATE: shoes have been returned, thanks to the cutest hiker couple responding to my plea on my other favorite site of WTA. The hiking community is the best!)

They still made it happen, just a later start than expected