Mastodawn

Bradley 🏳️‍🌈 ブラッドリー Jul 30, 2024

Alpine Lakes: Robin Lakes/Potholes

I hadn’t heard of these lakes until a week or so ago. It’s a fun hike but becomes pretty technical after Tuck Lake. Robin Lakes are incredible. Highly recommended. I love the granite, reminds me of the Enchantments and Eagle Cap. Set up my tent in a spot with afternoon shade and then summited Trico Mountain. Easy enough but traversing a couple small chutes made me nervous.

#Backpacking #Hiking #WashingtonState #PNW #LandscapePhotography #Outdoors #Mountains

Andrew Briscoe Jul 30, 2024

Alpine Lakes: Deep Lake/Cathedral

Started the day off with a major mistake that caused an urgent trip back to my car (more below). Then I changed plans and headed toward Cathedral Pass. Pre-staged camp and headed towards Peggy’s pond. Turned around when the trail got sketchy and climbed to the base of Cathedral Rock. Explored some meadows and side trails including Deep Lake Ridge. An amazing trip overall.

#Backpacking #Hiking #WashingtonState #PNW #LandscapePhotography #Outdoors #Mountains

Andrew Briscoe Jul 30, 2024

So very early in the morning I go to get water before departing. I accidentally filled my only clean water bottle with lake water. This is a bad situation. I now have no way to drink filtered water. A common water strategy among long-distance hikers is to have one or more “clean” bottles and one “dirty” bottle with a water filter screwed on top. Most commonly, 1 liter Smart Water bottles and a Sawyer Squeeze filter. (more)

Andrew Briscoe Jul 30, 2024

Fill up the dirty bottle with water and filter by squeezing into the clean bottle. I hiked over three hours with no water back to my car to get another bottle. Far from ruined my day however. Still had a blast.

Kelsey Jordahl Jul 30, 2024

@andrewbriscoe That sucks! I think I would have been satisfied by emptying, drying, and rinsing with filtered water at this point. I usually carry emergency purification tablets too.

Andrew Briscoe Jul 30, 2024

@kajord It did suck! I had actually just dumped out my filtered water to get fresh cold water. It was a comedy of errors. I’m thinking about if I should do anything different or just not make that mistake again. Water tablets would be light and easy but can cause other issues, so I hear. Bringing a second small empty bottle would be light. If I had been more than a day away from my car I would have just had to drink the water and pray.

Joshua McKinnon Jul 31, 2024

@andrewbriscoe Do you dislike the Sawyer filter bags, or just carry unfiltered water and squeeze/filter as needed?

I know they’re more of a pain to fill…

Andrew Briscoe Jul 31, 2024

@onelin I still have a couple but I’ve never actually used them. It just always seemed more convenient to use bottles. Might be a good idea to have one on hand. I already bring so many more things than a lot of people I hesitate to add more but maybe I should. 🤔

Joshua McKinnon Jul 31, 2024

@andrewbriscoe I like that they’re easy to shove into the outer pouch of my pack and look very different from my smart water bottles so no way to confuse. We all have our own system though! You’ve likely filtered thousands of times more than me :)

Your post was a good reminder to me that I should carry a couple backup treatment tablets for emergency / backup use - especially as I try longer hikes and rely more on filtering.

Andrew Briscoe Jul 31, 2024

@onelin I do like the idea. I’m going to get some treatment tablets too. That would be easiest to keep doing what I know and like and have a backup. I do change things over time though. Unfortunately most of it is just adding more and more items when there’s already very little that I take that I would want to live without. But I’m having fun so no complaints!

Christian Jul 30, 2024

Would rinsing the bottle with filtered water not be sufficient?

Andrew Briscoe Jul 30, 2024

@Haselbach I didn’t have any clean water at the time but personally I wouldn’t chance it unless it was an emergency. I’m definitely going to be more careful. I just don’t want to get giardia.

Serhiy Barhamon Jul 30, 2024

@andrewbriscoe use this as a dirty water container with Sawyer mini. Doubles as a heat reserve in extra cold situations.

Highly recommend.

https://cnocoutdoors.com/products/vecto-28mm?variant=40173968457817

28mm Vecto Water Container

Andrew Briscoe Jul 30, 2024

@barhamon Thanks! This is a good idea. I have heard great things about CNOC bags.

Ms. Que Banh Jul 31, 2024

@andrewbriscoe Looks like a great outdoors alpine adventure! Gorgeous scenery 👌

Everyday.Human Derek Jul 29, 2024

@andrewbriscoe great photos! Thank you for sharing!

Andrew Briscoe Jul 29, 2024

@EVDHmn Thank you! Glad you like them.

UncleCharlieA Jul 29, 2024

@EVDHmn @andrewbriscoe agree, thanks for sharing!

Heidi Jul 29, 2024

@andrewbriscoe I bet the water in those lakes is not warm. Beautiful photos. What's the mountain in the distance of the last photo? (Is that question shouting, "I'm a New Englander!"?) 🤣🤣

Andrew Briscoe Jul 29, 2024

@Heidiknits Well I wasn’t positive either! 😂 The water was warmer than I would have thought. Maybe the sun and granite warms it up. I saw three people go in and they seemed fine.

@andrewbriscoe Love Tuck & Robin lakes! Part of that area I used to get to a lot when I was younger. A bit of a scramble up to them IIRC and I had the pleasure of falling into the creek between Robin lakes 🤪

Andrew Briscoe Jul 29, 2024

@anniegreens The trail was definitely a scramble! Never fun to fall in. I’ll explain more tomorrow but I might have done something worse in the creek. I dunked my only clean water bottle in without thinking. Turned out fine but I had to cruise down the mountain in the dark back to my car to get another bottle.

@andrewbriscoe oh no! well if you came in via Hyas Lake, that isn't *too* far but still quite a trek in the dark

falling in was definitely my fault, my cousins and I were straddling rocks and trying to catch fish jumping with our hands 🙄

Andrew Briscoe Jul 30, 2024

@anniegreens Haha that sounds like fun though. Saw a couple guys fishing for cutthroat. After the trek to the car I just changed plans and checked out the cathedral side. Encountered a lot of people saying they were going to Jade Lake so I guess I will have to go back. Oh well. 😀

@andrewbriscoe Jade Lake is a must! I dream about that water.

Andrew Briscoe Jul 30, 2024

@anniegreens OK! Probably in a couple weeks then. 😅

Tammy Gentzel Jul 29, 2024

@andrewbriscoe Spectacular!

Andrew Briscoe Jul 29, 2024

@TammyGentzel Thanks Tammy!

Serhiy Barhamon Jul 29, 2024

@andrewbriscoe, those photos are gorgeous!

Andrew Briscoe Jul 30, 2024

@barhamon Thank you Serhiy!

cremevax👩🏻‍💻🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦🇺🇦Jul 29, 2024

@andrewbriscoe nice pics!

I agree, the last leg up to Robin Lake is pretty technical. When we did it, we were all struggling. Then we finally got up to Robin and saw some very hardy souls had managed to drag an entire (non-folding) canoe up there and were paddling around. 😂

Andrew Briscoe Jul 30, 2024

@cremevax Thank you! That is completely nuts and I’m in awe. My secret love is watching canoe camping videos on YouTube. Even the most hardcore up in Canada would not likely ever want to do that.

cremevax👩🏻‍💻🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦🇺🇦Jul 30, 2024

@andrewbriscoe agreed, I give that an “extremely hardcore canoeing” rating!

tmpod Jul 29, 2024

@andrewbriscoe Gosh, those are gorgeous!

Andrew Briscoe Jul 30, 2024

@tmpod Thank you very much! ☺️

BrownsBay Jul 29, 2024

@andrewbriscoe That is awesome!

Andrew Briscoe Jul 30, 2024

@brownsbay Thank you!

Scott Jul 30, 2024

@andrewbriscoe man, this looks lovely!

Andrew Briscoe Jul 30, 2024

@scott It’s an amazing place for sure!

Joshua McKinnon Jul 30, 2024

@andrewbriscoe Wow! 😍

NotMaddie!Jul 30, 2024

@andrewbriscoe Dreamy landscape…just stunning! By technical, do you mean monkey crawling, narrow ledges or??

Andrew Briscoe Jul 30, 2024

@madrobin It was very steep and a lot of rocks, roots, and climbing up and down through crevices in granite. Nothing that scared me exposure wise. Difficult route finding though.

weit_im_westen Aug 1, 2024

@andrewbriscoe
🤩