Sawtooths 2017, Day 3

Change of Trailheads and Alice Lake

March 5, 2018

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Next: Sawtooths 2017 Day 4

I was up my typical very early in the morning to do my stretching and was treated to a nice sunrise as I did my 20 minute routine on the shore of Alpine Lake.

First light at Alpine Lake.

The first leg for day three, back out to the Iron Creek trailhead. (created with ridewithgps.com)

After heating up water for coffee we broke camp and headed out in the early morning sunrise with anticipation of another wonderful breakfast and coffee at the Stanley Cafe. The trip down was pretty uneventful until we got to the parking lot and realized that Vince was not there and nobody had seen him on the trail since the trail junction at mile 2. Vince did arrive about 15 minutes later having traveled a few extra steps by going the wrong way towards Stanley Lake at the junction. It was nice to hike in the cool morning air and see the sunrise hitting the mountain peaks that had been covered by clouds on our way up two days previous.

Heading down the trail from Alpine Lake with the morning sun hitting the Peaks to the north and west. We were rewarded with an amazing view of the Sawtooths from Stanley for getting up so early.

After another great breakfast, they always taste so much better after time in the wilderness. We drove down to Pettit Lake. The drive was a fairly lengthy one, taking the good part of an hour. We decided to loop out of the Pettit Lake trailhead instead of dropping a car there and heading in Hell Roaring creek because the Forest Service was going to close the creek area to protect the salmon spawning from the projected solistic crowds. It also looked like a pretty hot and dusty hike into Hell Roaring lake. Our revised route was to head to Alice Lake, then to Toxaway, and over to Imogene Lake. Depending on how we were feeling we thought we might take a look over into Edna Lake. The trailhead at Pettit Lake was hot and dusty and fairly crowded for a midweek day, and it seemed there were quite a few day hikers. We were able to get the last two parking spots and set about dividing up the remainder of the freeze dried food Dave had got for us, and repacking for the remaining four days. I must say I liked doing the trip in two loops much better than trying to carry 7 days worth of food to start the trip. It also allowed us to swap out clothes and not have to wash clothing on the trail.

Our second leg for Day three, to Alice Lake in the afternoon sun. (created with ridewithgps.com)

Once we were all set, we headed out. The trail to start skirts the north shore of Pettit lake and is fairly wooded which gave us shade from the hot sun. You enter the wilderness about 1.25 miles into the hike and have to stop and fill out another wilderness pass. We took the opportunity to get some group shots of us entering into the wilderness.

Looking across Pettit Lake at our hiking route up the canyon to Alice Lake and the El Capitan of Idaho. Taking some time to document our reentry into the wilderness.

The trail after the wilderness boundary continues to be shady and in the trees following the creek up the canyon. Interestingly, this creek has no name on any of the map sources I looked at. I cannot remember exactly how many creek crossings there were on this trail but believe it was 6 or 7. We did not have to remove our boots for any of them, but if the creek had been any higher we would have had to for a few. The crossings and hot sunny conditions made this 6 mile hike harder than we had anticipated. With many waterfalls and beautiful vistas back down and up the canyon this is a really spectacular hike. Doing a day hike up to Alice Lake and back in a day would be a healthy day.

Starting up the canyon, one of many waterfalls and a couple of the 6 or 7 river crossings. It was nice to find a log to cross on as it looked like we may have to wade otherwise.

Shortly after our second crossing of the creek on a log, about mile 3, the trail breaks out of the trees and starts to climb along the north side of the canyon. Of course, this meant that the afternoon sun was bearing down on us as we did most of the climbing we needed to do on our way to Alice Lake. On top of the sun, the hot weather Idaho was experiencing in August came back and it was in the high 80’s or low 90’s heading up the canyon.

Heading up the steeper section of the hike after mile 3. Steve resting a bit, you can see that it is getting a bit hot. The trail switchbacks up the north side of the canyon with little tree cover, that did provide us with great views of the canyon peaks and back to the White Cloud Mountains. As we approached the end of the steeper climbing we saw a nice waterfall and there was a wood bridge over the creek.

Towards the top of the steeper climb, about mile 5, we crossed the creek yet again. Vince mentioned that he was out of water and was going to stop and filter. I offered him some from my extra, but he said that was alright and he would wait for David and filter. We continued on, and found out later that Vince had left his filter in the car and gave up waiting for David. He continued the rest of the way without water and was pretty parched and hurting when he rolled into camp. A bit further up the trail, Steve and I stopped and had a snack as we had not stopped for lunch with our big breakfast. We were running out of energy and the quick snack helped to fuel us up for the last mile or so. From mile 5 on you enter into the lower part of the Alice Lake basin and there is a nice looking pond with many fish rising. There were some nice campsites so we thought, maybe wishfully, that Darrell might have stopped here so he could fish. No such luck, so we continued to the beginning of Alice Lake and still no Darrell until we were almost to the end of Alice Lake.

The assorted views coming into the Alice Lake basin, I am really glad we chose to do this loop as the Alice Lake area was a real highlight of the trip and one of the top ten backpacking sites I have seen.

It was pretty busy at the Lake and most of the early campsites were taken. Darrell had found one nice big campsite but there was a single tent already there. I decided that I really did not feel like hiking another mile up to Twin Lakes, and wandered around and found a pretty nice campsite with many tent sites. As an added bonus it had a nice view of El Capitan. We set up camp and Vince rolled in and started to rehydrate. Steve and I went back and made an arrow out of our hiking poles to make sure David found us. We did not want a repeat of last year’s issue when David and Kevin could not find us at Marie Lake and were separated from us for most of a day. David did roll in an hour later having stopped to feed his hungry beast with a late lunch.

Our campsite at Alice Lake, nice with plenty of pads for us and a great view. We were near the upper end of the lake. Darrell provided some brook trout for dinner and we enjoyed the evening light views.

Although day three took quite a bit out of us all, we spent the evening wandering around enjoying the sunset and beautiful setting. Darrell finally was able to start enjoying some success fishing and fried up some trout for the dinner enjoyment of those that like trout. I think everybody slept soundly.

Previous: Sawtooths 2017 Day 2

Next: Sawtooths 2017 Day 4

Photo credits: Richard Moore, Darrell Moore, and Vince Stefanetti

keywords:Sawtooth Mountains, Stanley, Pettit Lake, Alice Lake, Alpine Lake, Backpacking, Hiking

description: Day Three of our backpacking trip to the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, Alice Lake