http://en.wilipedia.org/wiki/The_Enchantments
Back: Kyna, Kim, Camille, Charlotte, Olga, Bev. Front: Beth
Oh my gosh!!!!! There were mountain goats walking through our camp!!! They were so cute and huggable, but we controlled ourselves and kept our distance
The first time I'd ever heard about the fabled Enchantments was in an email from Beverly on January 6, 2012, in which she sent me a link and said, "We need to go here!! Why have I never heard of this place? Looks gorgeous"
Looking at the date of January 12, 2012 answers why I didn't pay attention to Bev' question--I was too busy with King's Mums.
Then in January 2015, a nurse named Judy, who had helped me in the recovery room after a partial knee replacement surgery, and I got to talking about hiking. She gave me a list of her three favorite hiking destinations. The Enchantment Lakes were at the top of her list. Bev and I tried to go during the summer of 2015, but we learned that one must enter a lottery to win a reservation to hike in that area. We were too late.
But the saga continues to February 2016 when four of us (Charlotte, Kyna, Bev, and I) each paid $6.00 to enter the lottery. Three weeks later -----Bev won a space!!!!
Fast forward to August the second when seven of us headed north to Leavenworth, Washington to begin our epic backpacking trip. We left Oregon City at oh dark thirty and six hours later we were at the trail head ready to go
Our goal was to reach a campsite at Upper Snow Lake just 6.7 miles. Should be easy, right. But it wasn't! It was long and steep and on a southern exposure.
It became obvious that we needed to make a field adjustment - we would never make it to Upper Snow Lake as planned. In hindsight we realized that we should have spent the night in Leavenworth and started walking at 7:00 am not at 1:00 pm. Now we just wanted to get to Nada Lake and eat dinner and go to bed. We were only going to make five miles.
Nada Lake, elev 4,800 ft, in late afternoon.
Our Campsite was nice
The wind started to blow, the clouds lowered, and we were cold!!
We left early on the second day heading for Upper Snow Lake, elev 5,417 ft
Nada Lake in the valley below us
Water gushing through a spillway from Lower Snow Lake
Masonry dam separating the two Snow Lakes
Snow Lake coming into view
Foot bridge to our campsite
Oh my gosh!!!!! There were mountain goats walking through our camp!!! They were so cute and huggable, but we controlled ourselves and kept our distance
After lunch we decided to hike further to Lake Viviane just to get our first glimpse of the Lower Enchantments.
However we didn't exactly understand the terms in the hike's description. Such as "Bouldering" and a "Class 2 Scramble". What!!!! I was envisioning a dirt path to an enchanting valley.
And here is Lake Viviane!!! The colors were incredible!!
And more goats!!
We returned downhill over the boulders and rock faces to our tents at Snow Lake. We were exhausted!! Really exhausted. Well. - Charlotte wasn't.
Day 3 - we headed back up to Lake Viviane and then continued further and higher up through the Enchantment Lakes Basin.
All the superlatives were true
One of the lakes is named Perfection Lake. We decided that when we reached Perfection, we had no need to go further.
After enjoying Paradise we returned to our campsite at Upper Snow Lake
Day 4: we left early (7:00ish) and headed for the trail head. It was all downhill but the journey was brutal on our feet and knees. The trail was, once again, in full sun. By the time we got to the car I was totally drenched with sweat - pretty disgusting. But with a complete change of clothes waiting for me in the car and a yummy hamburger at a hamburger joint, I survived.
The Enchantments hike was the hardest one I've ever done.......and the best. "If you've done The Enchantments, everything else is easy".
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