Cruising Adventures of the Red Witch

July 31st (Friday) Today Jason and I headed back up to the lake.  It was another perfect summer day and we wanted to enjoy it.  We went back to the area of Triple Falls and just relaxed and enjoyed the heat.  I lay on the beach blanket, went swimming, and took pictures, while Jason did some casts from shore, went swimming, and relaxed.  After many casts and a few followers, Jason caught a beautiful, large trout.  We let it go because we already had the three from yesterday for dinner, but it put up a good fight and was a beautiful fish to see.     We made a fire and for lunch we cooked some sausages. There is nothing quite like fire-cooked food, so good! We headed home when the sun went behind the trees.  It was another perfect summer day.  It was so nice to be able to enjoy the sun and the warmth.  

July 29th and 30th (Wednesday and Thursday)   On Wednesday we rested, unpacked, and dealt with our groceries.  It was barge day. On Thursday we headed out for a day on the lake.  It was spectacular; shorts weather first thing in the morning, still, and beautiful.  We got up to Little Red at around 09:00 and planed out over Link Lake disturbing the mirror-like glassy surface that was reflecting the perfect peaks all around.  Because the water level was so much lower than any of the other times that we had been out exploring on the lake earlier in the year there were a lot of beach areas for us to check out.  We stopped at several of them and got out and explored.   I t was nice to be walking around in shorts and t-shirt and flip flops, and feeling the heat from the sun.     Ah summer!     We found some beautiful sandy areas, some large bear tracks, and an old A-frame structure.  The A-frame was stil...

July 28th (Tuesday)   This morning we awoke to a different and beautiful sight.  All of the valleys were filled with a blanket of fog, but all of the mountaintops, including us, were out in the sun.   It was a lovely morning.  I packed up inside our tent, while Jason got things organized outside and prepared our tea and breakfast.  We then enjoyed our breakfast and tea from inside our tent, which was now empty.  With the fly off of the tent we had a full view around us, and we could sit and enjoy it without being pestered by the bugs.  Once our tent was packed up we were all ready to go and we headed out. It was not long before we were down into the trees and making our way along a similar route to which we had come up.  Quite often the terrain was so steep that I had to turn around and climb down like on a ladder using the many strong and well rooted plants as handholds.  Despite the steep and still to...

July 27th (Monday)   We awoke inside of a cloud.   Not only was our view gone, but also our visibility on the ridge was very limited.   At around 10:00 the cloud began to brighten, and by 11:00 it was rapidly breaking up.  We started to get pieces of our view back, a glimpse of the mountaintop, the lake far below, Ocean Falls, and other mountain peaks.  Bit by bit it broke up and shifted, and within the next half hour it was almost completely clear.  We packed up our lunch and safety equipment, and began our hike up to the top.  Today we would reach the summit! We headed up and the going was easy, there was no thick growth to make our way through, only steep rocks and mossy meadows.   Each bit of climb in elevation opened up a whole new part of our ever increasing view and we took many breaks just to look out and take it all in.   At one point we came to a particularly perfect little snowmelt stream tha...

July 26th (Sunday)   Last night, as we lay in bed before going to sleep, we heard the rain begin.  It was not a heavy rain, just a steady shower, and we hoped that it would clear overnight.  We awoke in the morning to clear blue sky and the sun coming up over the top of Baldy.  As we lay in bed before getting up, we were confused, as it looked like it was clear blue sky, but it was still raining, or at least it sounded like it was still raining.  It took us a little while to realize that it was not rain that we were hearing, but the sound of hundreds of black flies bombarding our tent.  When we came out of the tent we were armed with our bug-net hats, long clothing, and bug spray.   Over our time up on Baldy the black flies were a constant nuisance.  When we ate they got into our food and drink, and they became an inevitable and unavoidable source of extra protein.  In order to eat we had to, at least t...

July 25th (Saturday) Although we had planned to get an early start on the day of our expedition, we awoke in the morning to cloud and showers.  The forecast was still for nice weather for the day and for the rest of the forecast time, so we were hopeful that the weather would still improve and that we could be more confident that the nice weather was actually on its way.  Sure enough, as the morning progressed the clouds began to lighten and break up.  We made the decision to head out and we put on our packs and walked up the dock to our truck.  We drove up to the lake and loaded up Little Red.  We were off. When we got over to the sand and gravel bar at South Saiak Creek we were surprised to see that the water was about six inches higher on the lake than it had been before yesterday’s rain.  The six inches in water height had made a big difference to our sand and gravel bar, and much of it was now under water.  Lucki...