Sawtooths 2017, Day 2

Back to Alpine Lake

January 23, 2018

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Next: Sawtooths 2017 Day 3

After a wet and windy night we woke up to clouds and mist. The clouds obstructed our view of the mountain peaks around us, but made for mystical feeling as they rolled around and past the peaks. Since we were enjoying the Sawtooth Lake area a group decision was made to take an easy day and just hike back to Alpine Lake. Since Vince had not brought a second dinner with him we all determined that we had packed enough extra food to keep him fed and happy for another night.

Day two direct route map, created using Ride With GPS (ridewithgps.com)

After having breakfast and breaking camp it was time to head out. Dave and Vince decided to head straight to Alpine Lake, find us a campsite, and relax for the day. Darrell was itching to try his luck at fishing so planned on fishing at Sawtooth Lake for a while and then heading to Alpine Lake to do some fishing there also. Steve and I decided to hang around the campsite to see if the clouds would break up so we could get a better view of the peaks above the Baron Creek canyon. Steve had not hiked down with me the night before and I wanted to show him the view and have a look into the canyon. We did run into a group camped a bit down the trail who had hiked up the canyon the day before and had arrived in the dark. The clouds did start to break up a bit, but never cleared up totally. At 10 am we decided it was time to hit the trail.

A cloudy and misty start to the day.

Enjoying breakfast after a wet and windy night, and everybody was still in good spirits to hit the trail.

About 10 in the morning the clouds started to lift, but time to break camp and move on.

We retraced our steps back past Lake 8271 up to the gap between 8271 and Sawtooth Lake. We enjoyed the view both forward and backward.

Leaving the peaceful creek by our campsite and heading back past Lake 8271 through wildflowers with beautiful views back to North Baron Creek canyon and peaks. You can see the difference a couple of hours made in the cloud cover on the peaks (from when Dave and Vince had made their way up to the gap).

As it was on the the way down into our campsite the day before the trail goes through some pretty rocky and rough terrain while traveling through a large rock slide area. The temptation is to keep looking back at the incredible set of peaks behind you causing you to trip on the rocks. When we crested the gap into Sawtooth Lake we were treated to a nice view of the lake as the clouds were starting to lift. We did see that two groups had camped in the area just south of Sawtooth lake and it did confirm our conclusion from the previous day that this area did not have any decent campsites. There were many wildflowers out in bloom making the hike very enjoyable.

Coming through the gap between Lake 8271 and Sawtooth Lake. There were a couple groups camped at the end of the lake/pond in the upper right photo. You can see Darrell trying his luck fishing, but there were no fish to be caught that day in Sawtooth Lake. The pass Steve and I ventured up to do some exploring is the one you can see over Vince’s right hand.

When we hit the trailhead at the outlet of Sawtooth Lake Steve and I decided to head up to the pass between Sawtooth Lake and McGowen Lakes to take a look. We went up the trail a bit until we found a nice viewpoint for lunch. After enjoying lunch and the view we left our packs and hiked up to the pass. The trail hugs a steep slope on the north side of Sawtooth Lake and can be quite narrow. If you have a fear of heights or vertigo this will be a testy climb. It seems many of the trails in the Sawtooths have this characteristic. The slope was filled with many different wildflowers as the snow must of melted off the slope just a few weeks before we got there.

The wildflowers and view heading up to the pass between Sawtooth Lake and McGowen Lakes. We knew that there had been a huge fire over 10 years ago but were not ready to see how desolate it still looked. Even Yellowstone 10 years later had seemed to recover much quicker than this.

When we got to the pass the clouds finally lifted and we enjoyed an amazing view of the Sawtooth Lake basin and peaks. Since we could see Stanley, I powered up my cell phone and was able to get a strong 4G signal so I sent of some emails, texts, and even posted a few pictures to Facebook. This was one of a couple of times I was able to get a cell phone signal in the wilderness. We ventured over into the McGowen Lakes side of the pass to get a better feel for just how large the fire(s) had been and it was heartbreaking to see so much wilderness looking like an atomic blast zone. After enjoying the view from the pass some more we ventured back down to our packs.

Day two route map with our extra exploring, created using Ride With GPS (ridewithgps.com)

I had brought some remains of my father, Jim Moore, with me to scatter at Sawtooth Lake since he had hiked there while vacationing in Sun Valley many years ago. There was a picture of him labeled Sawtooth Lake, but we were not able to pinpoint where he had been standing. Steve mentioned that it might have been before the fires and the look of the area might have changed enough we would not recognize it. I decided that our lunch spot had such a commanding view of the lake and mountains and knew it would be one that my dad would have loved so I scattered some ashes there saving some for Darrell, Dave and Steve to scatter that evening at Alpine Lake.

The view of Sawtooth Lake outlet coming down from the gap, spreading some of my dad’s ashes with a beautiful view of the lake and mountains, and crossing the logjam at the lake outlet.

Once we got back to the trail junction by crossing over the logjam at the lake outlet we basically retraced our steps back over the outlet stream and down the steep trail to Alpine Lake. Glad that the day was sunny and the trail was dry as it could be a bit slippery and hard to navigate in wet conditions. We were treated to nice sunny views of the amazing scenery we had seen on our way up in the cloudy drizzly conditions the day before. When we arrived at Alpine Lake we headed east along the north shore to a nice big campsite that Dave and Vince had found and claimed for our group.

Views from the trail heading down the steep section of trail from Sawtooth Lake to Alpine Lake. Our nice spacious campground on the north east side of Alpine Lake.

Once we had camp set up we wandered around the east side of Alpine Lake heading towards the south end of the lake were Darrell was fishing. We did alright until the trail got very marginal about halfway down the east side of the lake so we turned back. After dinner we headed down to the lakeshore to spread the rest of dad’s ashes where there was a beautiful view of Alpine Lake and the mountains south of the lake.

Beautiful Alpine Lake from the north shore, Darrell fishing the south shore with no luck here either, the view from the lake outlet, and enjoying evening light and spreading the rest of dad’s ashes in another site with a great mountain view.

All in all, a very enjoyable day wandering around the Sawtooth Lake area for the second day. Nice to have an easy second day after a first day that included some pretty healthy climbing with little time to acclimatization. We were able to keep Vince well fed by sharing some of our dinners and extra food with him. At the end of the day we decided that we would wake up early, have some coffee and head down to Stanley for breakfast yet again at the Stanley Cafe.

Previous: Sawtooths 2017 Day 1

Next: Sawtooths 2017 Day 3

Photo credits: Richard Moore and Vince Stefanetti

keywords:Sawtooth Mountains, Sawtooth Lake, Alpine Lake, Backpacking, Hiking

description: Day two of our backpacking trip to the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, Alpine Lake