Sawtooth Lake 7.3.20

Thursday afternoon we got off work early and started our drive up to Stanley Idaho for a backpacking trip we had planned just a couple of days before. We were set on hiking into Trail Creek Lakes a beautiful series of 5 small alpine lakes located in the Sawtooth Mountains. The plan was to camp that night at the trailhead located in Grand Jean 47 miles northwest of Stanley and begin our journey early Friday morning into the lakes.

We loaded the truck with our 40lb packs, both of our dogs and departed on our journey at around 530pm. Our trip was soon interrupted by break lights and miles of cars coming to a complete stop. Further up the road there had been an automobile accident and traffic was at a stand still that would keep us there for over an hour, we were 2 miles away from our off ramp.

Finally we escaped the interstate and stopped at a gas station to fill up our tank and have the slowest sandwich maker in Idaho make us two hoagie sandwiches. With the circumstances at hand we began jokingly making remarks such as "its a good thing we left work early" and "that was the most painful sandwich making I've ever seen". Never the less we hit the road again and made it to Grand Jean

around 1030-1100 that night.

It was dark by the time we left Stanley and the road up to Grand Jean was full of twists, turns, and (thanks to the full moon) deer around every corner, slowing our long journey even further.

We drove to the trailhead looking for places to camp along the way, in which we found none.

Arriving at the trialhead we found it to be packed with cars and campers, and had no choice but to turn around and search again for a camp site elsewhere. After approaching possible camp site after camp site and shining our head lights on countless tents and campers we finally found a less crowded site with a couple of free spots for a tent. It was 12 am by the time we were settled in.

We awoke the next morning ready to continue our adventure, a little later than expected and a little groggy from the late night before. We packed our tent, loaded up our packs again and got in the truck to drive back up to the trailhead only to discover that we had a flat tire.

After a brief discussion we decided the tire had just enough air to try to limp it back to town to hopefully have it repaired.

47 miles later we were drinking coffee at an automotive shop connected to the back of a gas station in Stanley waiting for them to patch our tire. We recapped the last 24 hours of unfortunate events with laughter and disbelief wondering what would happen next as we shifted our sites to a different lake 6.8 miles from our repair shop. Sawtooth Lake was our new exciting unplanned destination.

We arrived at the Iron Creek trialhead finally ready to make the trek to any lake at this point. It is 5 miles to Sawtooth Lake from the Iron Creek trialhead.

Quinn and Joker loaded down and ready to go

Josi carrying her own food for the journey

The trail begins at almost 7,000 feet in elevation and climbs above 8,250 feet

Joker taking a break in a cool stream

Alpine lake on the way to Sawtooth Lake

Alpine Lake at 7,828 feet

Hitting snow right before Sawtooth Lake

Coming up on Sawtooth Lake and Mt. Regan

Mt. Regan

Sawtooth lake covered with ice

Set up our tent in this clear flat area right in front of the lake

It was a little overcast and windy when we reached the lake and it sprinkled a little but soon the clouds past and the sun came out.

Joker loved the ice water

Wasn't too serious about fishing and caught nothing

Checking out my camera's self timer

That night when we crawled into our tent resting from our hike, we heard a loud boom and felt like a wave underneath us on the hard ground. We looked at each other and exclaimed that we had felt an earthquake! The next morning we heard another loud booming noise and Quinn could see the water ripple on the lake. Minor mag. 3.0 earthquake - 37 km NW of Stanley, Idaho (USA) on Friday, 3 July 2020

The next morning July 4th, lake froze over again with these cool frozen rings

4th of July morning

Packed up and getting ready to head back down

Fun fact Josi carried her own food up and most of our trash back down to the truck!

Alpine lake on our way down

You can see the town of Stanley from this view point

When we got back down to the truck on July 4th we drove back into Stanley and had cheeseburgers and fries at Sawtooth Luces restaurant. We finished our tripped by soaking our sore muscles and my bruised toes at sunbeam hotsprings and happy to report that the trip home was uneventful.