Last Call
A beautiful morning at Little Redfish Lake
Late fall, almost the end of the hiking season. There was no longer any smoke in Idaho from forest fires and the weather forecast was good. I wanted to do one more hike before winter came. I got up early and headed for the Sawtooths. Since there had been a lot of fire damage this year in the northern part of the Sawtooths, I decided to go down south, where there had been no fires. I planned to hike to Alice Lake.
When I reached Stanley the weather was perfect. There was a bright blue sky with just a few wisps of cloud to add some color and provide a little bit of contrast to photos. I snapped a few pictures at Little Redfish Lake on the way to the Petit Lake Trailhead. It has one of the best views of the Sawtooth Mountains, especially early in the morning when the light is from the east.
Petit Lake - the trail goes up that valley
It was a little cool when I started out but not too bad. Once I was hiking I warmed up quickly, even though the trail is easy. That's because for the first mile or so it starts out level, just following the shore of Petit Lake. A good warmup before starting serious elevation gain, of which there is plenty later on.
Sandy and I had hiked this trail back in late June during our annual stay in Stanley at the Redfish Riverside Inn. Then we had turned back when we reached the far end of the lake because it had been very buggy. Early in the year it's somewhat boggy there and the mosquitoes were definitely swarming. There were no such problems today. By this late in October there had been several hard freezes at night. All the bugs were gone, so with a bright, warm and sunny day, it was perfect for hiking.
El Capitan from Alice lake
Past the lake the trail entered forest and started to climb. It crossed the outlet creek for Alice Lake twice but this late in the year the water was low and getting across was easy. Early in the season it could be tough. As the trail climbed the view opened up in a few spots to peaks of the White Clouds far off in the east.
After several hours of hiking, the trail climbed into an upper valley. Eventually it reached a small tarn. It was pretty, but I knew from previous trips that the main attraction was still ahead. A few more minutes of hiking and I arrived at Alice Lake. There were two people sitting right where the trail reached the lake so I continued for another couple of hundred yards. After going around a corner I found a spot to sit comfortably where I couldn't see or hear the other people. I had the whole place to myself. To the south was the impressive peak of El Capitan. I think it's a dumb name for a mountain in Idaho but it is a beautiful peak. I climbed it many years ago with my friend Craig Raese. To the west, across Alice Lake, were a series of peaks known as the Dragon's Back. It's definitinely one of the most beautiful spots in Idaho.
Alice Lake
Usually when I hike I get to my destination, take a few pictures, and then turn and head back. Not today. It was too perfect a day. I spent at least a half hour just sitting there, enjoying the view and soaking up the sun. It was probably even longer. I didn't really keep track of the time.
Eventually I got up to leave. The return hike was all downhill so pretty straightforward. I got back to my car a little less than six hours after starting out.
According to the AllTrails app and my GPS, the hike was 12.2 miles with 1,834 feet of elevation gain. A good days work but not a killer hike. I felt great and really enjoyed it. My new knee did well too. This was the best test that it had so far. It handled the elevation gain (and loss, which is worse for knees) just fine. Perfect weather. Exceptional scenery. A great hike. This was a perfect day in the mountains and a good finish to the season. I capped off the day with a pizza at Papa Brunee's before making the drive home.
