STAG PARTY
After breakfast the next
morning, we headed up the road towards Cinnamon Pass. We reached a ghost town and a fork in the road. We left the main route here, and continued a
short distance to the Cataract Lake Trailhead.
Along the way, we passed at least a half-dozen deer. Most of them were males, and several had
impressive racks. It was surprising to
see that much wildlife in such a small area.
Christy dropped Myron,
Saucony, and I off at the trailhead and headed back to camp. Myron and I planned to hike to Cataract Lake
and the Continental Divide. Christy’s
knee was bothering her again, so she was going to skip this hike. Instead, she planned on doing a mountain
bike ride on some of the dirt roads in the area. She was eager to see if riding would aggravate her knee.
Myron and I picked up the
well-developed trail and quickly crossed a rushing stream on a footlog. Shortly beyond, we reached a trail register,
where a family was signing out. They
headed out towards the trailhead, while we began the first of a series of
lengthy switchbacks. At the time, we
had no idea that they would be the only people we’d see until the end of the
hike.
Switchbacks in deep forest
got us warmed up. Eventually we reached
Cataract Creek, and followed it up past rushing cascades. We crossed the creek several times, either
by footlog or by rock hopping. Some of
the crossings were tricky, but there were no casualties.
We passed a pleasant
campsite, and climbed further to the remains of an old mine. The entrance to the mine is now closed off,
but tailings and railroad track remnants can still be seen here. The best feature of the area though is back
downstream. The view from here back to
the north is dominated by 14,001’ Sunshine Peak. Even though it is the smallest 14er, Sunshine still has a
dramatic presence.
From there we continued
upstream, passing a pleasant waterfall and a rockslide. Beyond the rockslide, a final creek crossing
brought us to treeline. From there, we
wandered into alpine country. The trail
stays well away from the creek here, which flows through a series of ponds and
wetlands. Once in the tundra, the trail
became indistinct, but the route was obvious.
We continued to climb, gradually now, towards the distant ridge forming
the continental divide.
With little warning, clouds
began building overhead. It wasn’t long
before rain was falling. We quickly put
on rain gear, but pressed on. We were
now close enough to our destination that a cold rain wasn’t going to turn us
around.
We passed above Cataract
Lake, where a couple of tents indicated that we weren’t the only people in the
area. A few minutes later, we passed
another tarn almost on top of the continental divide. We decided to stop for lunch there as the rain had stopped. Despite this, it was still cold. The view south across the divide was rather
restricted. Looking back towards
Sunshine Peak provided the best views in the area
Because of the conditions,
we didn’t linger long. We headed back
quickly, but lost the trail in the meadows on a couple of occasions. We eventually rejoined the creek, and before
long the sun was back out. We passed a
couple of hikers, and reached the trailhead a few minutes later. Christy was waiting for us, and we returned
to camp by mid-afternoon. This provided
us with plenty of time to relax around the campground. I even managed to spend a little time in our
hammock before dinner. That evening, we
grilled chicken and enjoyed a campfire and beer. We went to bed early, knowing that an early start would be
required the next morning for our climb of Handies Peak.
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