Aug 10 Aloha Lake 8116’
9:25am- I slept in till almost 7am this morning! The sun hitting my tent is what woke me up I do believe. Needless to say I hopped up, packed my stuff, ate some cereal and was out of camp by 7:45am.
Right away I was climbing on rocky tread, the kind where every foot fall is important. Kind of like walking on giant marbles! I was groggy, tired and none to chipper. But as it always happens I got to the top of that hill and the tread turned to soft dirt, it leveled out and I started to feel I could actually walk!
I stopped here at Aloha Lake to make a giant pot of coffee and to see this famous lake. It is pretty extraordinary. Very few trees around the lake itself with hundreds of small rock islands out in the lake. There is a huge mountain mass as a back drop to the west side of the lake called the Crystal Rouge. A massive mountain of granite. It sure is something to see.
7:41pm Middle Velma Lake 8000’+/-
My my, Lake Aloha seems almost a lifetime away. Was that only this morning? This journal tells me so.
OK, I have to fess up. I got lost this afternoon. Somewhere between Dicks Lake and Velma. I went zig when I should have gone zag. I knew I had it wrong when I showed up at what I thought was middle Velma, but it was on the wrong side of the trail. Or rather I was on the wrong trail. Anyway I knew I had screwed up so I located the nearest campers for orientation. This nice guy had a larger map and I quickly got on the right track. It only took me 15 extra minutes to find the right place so I wasn’t to far off. It did kind of make me nervous, not to mention hurt my pride.
In between Lake Aloha and getting found I climbed up to Dicks pass@ 9,380’, the highest I’ve been in awhile. It was quite a slog, 2.9 miles of 1,100’ gain, but it was very interesting to try and guess which huge mountain mass was going to be the one. I was wrong.
At lunch today I was going through my meals for the remainder of the trip and I find I have one less dinner than I need. I am not sure how it happened because I was working off a list while at Berkeley camp. The only thing that could of happened was that the meal dropped off the bench behind the spot I was working at. It was my favorite meal too so I know I wouldn’t deliberately leave it behind. Anyway this means I’m either going to eat snacks for dinner one night or I’m going to have to change my plan and walk longer for the next two days. That would mean 17.8 miles tomorrow and 14.2 miles the next day, eating dinner in town, if I can still stand after 14 miles. I guess I’ll just have to see how it goes tomorrow. Today’s total (before getting lost) 14 miles. Trip total-134 miles.
