Hold you horses, Brad; I'm still posting!
I just wanted to separate days with individual posts.
Day 13 dawned cool and clear. We planned to hike down to the lowest of the Big Five Lakes, up out of the basin, around to Lost Canyon Creek, and up to Columbine Lake for the night. Anticipating more miles and elevation loss and again for the day, I took a few quick morning photos (with the single working battery I still had), then we ate a quick breakfast and packed promptly to get onto the trail while the air was still cool. Here are a couple of early morning shots from the 4th of the Big Five Lakes:
We were looking at about 1,100 feet down and another 1,100 feet of hiking up over 8 miles or so through the course of the day, to get to Columbine Lake. This far into the trip, our packs were definitely lighter, and our supplies were looking good: enough to get through the next couple of days, and not much otherwise left over. Here is an image of the lowest of the Big Five Lakes as we passed around it and onto the trail to Lost Canyon:
Hiking up out of the Big Five Lakes basin, we passed through cool and quiet pine forests, next to a small pond, and to the edge of Lost Canyon, looking down into the lower depths where the creek canyon met up with the Big Arroyo. Again, there were very few people on trail. Weaving down switchbacks to Lost Canyon Creek, we saw willows and other deciduous trees starting to appear again, a few hikers, and a trail camp with pack horses blissfully chomping away at vegetation just back from the creek. As we ascended higher up through Lost Canyon, the ponderosa and lodgepole pine gave way to foxtail pine and more expansive views looking up canyon. Here is an open view of the upper canyon, with the sharp spire of Sawtooth Peak on the central horizon... The switchbacking trail up to Columbine Lake lies near the low point of the ridge, down and right of Sawtooth Peak:
The upper stretch of Lost Canyon was beautiful, with clouds gathering to shade our progress, but never quite threatening rain. The switchbacks passed over fine grit and scree, and the quality of the trail abruptly diminished as we neared the pass to Columbine Lake... Almost as if the trail crews had decided, "This is good enough; if hikers have made it this far, they can figure it on from here!" Here is a photo of Alacia nearing the top of the canyon, with the lower canyon stretching back towards the Big Arroyo in the distance:
Turning around, we had our first views of Columbine Lake. Sitting at 10,770 feet, the lake had a rather bleak and austere feel to it, dominated by an amphitheater of granite and little vegetation. Again, there were few people around... Besides a couple that camped out of sight at the far end of the lake, we had the area to ourselves. We decided to camp near the outlet to the lake, at the north end, near the right edge of the following photo in the mid-ground:
Here's the view from our campsite, looking south, with Needham Mountain to the left. The low cliff face down and right of Needham Mountain served as a hunting perch for an osprey that was frequenting the area. After being briefly harassed by a peregrine falcon flying through, the osprey succeeded in diving into the lake, catching a trout, and flyng off north out of view, no doubt to a lower and more forested habitat.
Here is another photo, looking northeast from the outlet of Columbine Lake; note the craggy ridgeline of the Great Western Divide in the distance:
We briefly considered hiking up to Sawtooth Pass, then down to the Monarch Lakes, but quickly decided against it... The high mountain scenery and solitude at Columbine Lake we quite beautiful, and neither of us had the energy for the ascent up to the pass. So, we settled in for a leisurely afternoon.
By this point my remaining camera battery was just about exhausted... As evening fell, I managed a few more images of mountain twilight, anticipating that the morning light display wouldn't be as stunning given our current orientation. Here are the last few images I could manage before the camera battery died completely, first of Columbine Lake at sunset:
Here is a bit of alpenglow off the ridge line northeast of the lake:
And here is a view of Cyclamen Lake down canyon from Columbine Lake, just after sunset. Not bad for a final image:
After finishing up with my photography obsession, Alacia and I settled into sleeping bags, staring up at the constellations and occasional shooting stars, breathing in the crisp air. One final effort tomorrow and we would be back down at the Mineral King area.
