The Enchantments
One aspect of this summer, and indeed the majority of the year that made me sad was Michael's absence from my climbing adventures. We had gotten to spend time together socially on occasion, but we didn't have the opportunity to do any big climbs because he was working hard and furiously at landing a job with an investment company. The work paid off, and in August a hedge fund company in Manhattan made him a pretty sweet job offer. Once this happened, we started making plans for our last climbing trip before he moved to the East coast. Originally, we had been talking about going to Wyoming, but we (Michael, Woodsy and I) were all feeling a bit pressed for time, and we settled on a much more local venue, which I had been trying to get to for several years - The Enchantment Lakes in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.
Shortly before the trip, Chris (aka - Woodsy) called to tell us that work had gotten crazy and he was not going to be able to join us at the beginning. I had serious trepidation about having him come in to the area alone, simply because I wasn't sure about where we would end up camping... but my concerns were compounded by Woodsy's talent for getting into trouble in all venues. But we went ahead with the plan anyways. So early in the morning of Labor Day, Michael and I through everything into my car in the hopes to make it to the Leavenworth Ranger Station early enough to be there for the daily lottery. I rarely speed, but I figured this being early on Labor Day morning, we should be ok, so I was humming along for most of the time at a healthy 75-80mph... and of course got pulled over. So we were late for the lottery, but as luck would have it, there was a cancellation for the day, and we were able to get a three person pass for the six days we wanted to be there.
Michael and I hit the Snow Creek trailhead around 11am and started the grind up to the lakes. All in all, the trail ascends roughly 5500 ft, over some 9 miles or so. As one ascends the trail, the scenery morphs slowly from the Icicle Creek scenery to a craggier scenery, getting progressively more dramatic. And there was a surprise along the way... something that made me stop in my tracks and gawk like a little kid... a flume of water shooting out of a cliff for two hundred feet! Being an avid hiker, I had seen lots of waterfalls... but I had never seen water shooting out of a cliff like this:
Of course, I had to stop and investigate and get some different angles of this awesome sight.
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As you can see, this was not a natural phenomenon. Apparently, the Army Corp of Engineers plumbed a line from an above lake, through the rock to have a source of water they could control to feed the lakes and rivers below, to protect the salmon run.
Here are some other pictures from the hike up to the lakes:
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That evening, Michael and I set up camp just over Lake Vivian. We decided it was close to the trail, so Woodsy would be able to find us, and it was close to a number of our objectives on the Temple Ridge. Temple Ridge had a number of attractive looking short climbs, so we would be able to keep ourselves busy until Woodsy met up with us (at least a couple of days, and we wanted to wait to hit Prussik Peak with Woodsy). We retired early, and we slept hard after the butt kicking hike.