Trudging The Sawtooths….

I know…. nice, huh?

Well, we took a badly needed vacation in mid August to accomplish a few things; see family, especially my elderly dad in Montana, show Debra where I grew up in Helena and get some good hiking done at a location I have wanted to visit for years: The Sawtooth Mountain Wilderness near Stanley Idaho. The word Sawtooth does the mountain range Justice!

Stanley is a little 2 dot town at the north end of that mountain range where the sign says “Population 100” and the locals said that is only in the summer and the winter is more like 50. It is a tourist driven economy. Redfish Lake to the south is magnificent and the lodge there hosts thousands of people each year and is kid friendly. It was hard to get a booking for lodging anywhere in the area but God provided well right in town at the Stanley High Country Inn. I would highly recommend that place. It is nice and affordable considering the prices in the area. It was quiet as well.

The town is cut into half with Lower Stanley on the east side and Stanley proper against the Sawtooth Mountain Range. That town is about 5 blocks by 5 blocks. The dining there is marvelous depending on where you eat. We ate at the Kasino Klub in Stanley 2 nights and the Bridge Street Grill in Lower Stanley 1 night. The Kasino Klub should be a 5 star restaurant! The food is out of this world. Everything in that town is a rustic log cabin environment.

The peaks in that mountain range can be described as: “Oh my gosh!”, “You’ve gotta be kidding me”, “Totally ominous!” & “Absolutely some of God’s best wilderness!” You have to be crazy to climb many of the peaks in that range and most require technical gear to do so. When filling out the National Forest Permit Log on one of them at the trailhead, I saw the written comment by one past hiker who apparently did Thompson Peak that said: “Never Again!”

We did not attempt any of the jagged rock peaks but did 2 days of hiking on 2 trail systems. The flora is a lot like the Colorado high country but there were some definite differences.

We covered 16 miles in 2-8 mile hikes on August 12-13. The hikes through them are far too numerous to mention. After buying a trail guide map of the range and asking for advice, the lady at the trading post recommended the Sawtooth Lake / Alpine Lake hike and the Bench Lakes hike. Since we live in Denver altitude is not a factor. Up there the town sits at 6500’ and the peaks are no more than 11,500’. They look higher, partly because, unlike Denver you drive right up to them and go straight up rather than drive over several layers of “foothill ranges” to get to them.

The tallest peak in the state was not far from us, Borah Peak which is a mere 12,668’ but looks higher since the valleys sit so low. I did get a shot of that peak off in the distance from the Bench Lakes hike. You can see both hike photo sets on our picture website at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/howethru

The hike to Alpine Lake up the Sawtooth Lake trails system starts out without a hint of what you are in for and then suddenly……. You find yourself surrounded by jagged rock peaks as you hike into a bowl. They seemed to wrap around us like a blanket. It reminded me of:

“As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore.” (Psalm 125:12)

We gained 1100’ in altitude in that climb but I found it easier at that lower elevation than here in Colorado. All along the way about every minute I would be saying “WOW”! I have seen many remarkable sights in the wilderness but this was one of the best!

Alpine Lake was a peaceful and quiet lake tucked below the summit of one of the peaks which was a good place for a snack and of course a shot of wildlife……. A chipmunk. ‘Munk’ of course was attracted to our food and not our company. He didn’t even get a nibble as that is not wise up there. We didn’t see any other wildlife other than some birds. I was surprised by that to a degree but the trails are busy ones.

The next day was the Bench Lakes trail above Redfish Lake. It was not quite as scenic until we traversed quite a bit and when we popped out higher up the views came into great view. That hike was an elevation gain of 2300’ but I didn’t feel worn out as much as I did the day before. Debra seemed to do better with it as well.

There are trail systems all over that range that will take you deep up there. Maybe some year we will take a run up there and try something new……

But for now we are glad to back in Colorado with plenty of the season still in front of us…….