I started my drive in the pitch dark this morning. Soon I ended up pulling off the side of the road just so that I could get out and look at the stars.

I saw Mount McLaughlin close up for the first time. Usually it’s just a distant peak seen while driving up Interstate 5. It probably would have looked more impressive if there had been snow on the peak.

I was pleased to see that there were no campers and RVs parked at the Blue Lake Basin trail head. I can’t remember if I previously mentioned this, but it seems that they can set up camp wherever they want around here.

There was frost on the ground in the morning. I enjoyed walking on the crunchy dirt and seeing millions of sparkles.

The trail quickly reached Round Lake, and then Blue Lake. The trail then passes between Blue Lake and Meadow Lake heading toward Horseshoe Lake. I planned to take the short spur to Pear Lake and have a snack, but I seemed to have missed it. I was thinking that I should have reached the lake by then, but I didn’t notice any spur trail. A few feet later I could spot a lake through the trees. I sort of have a habit of bushwhacking shortly before side boot paths, so this time I continued on the main trail, but it was obvious that I had gone too far. Oh well, I figured that I could catch it on the way back.

I wasn’t sure how far I was going to go. I knew that all of the lakes I previously mentioned should make for an easy day, but I had the option of continuing to Island Lake, which is what I decided to do. When I could finally see it, I cut through some trees to a view of the lake. The hiking book mentioned only one unmarked fork to, “the only grassy bank along the shore of large, brush-rimmed Island Lake.” Well the bushwhack I took led me to a very large grassy area, which would normally be large shallow part of the lake. Back to the main trail, I found the unmarked spur. It looked as though it has been abandoned since there are downed logs all over the place.

It was nice to have Island Lake all to myself, although it may not have been worth the effort to get to there. I’m not claiming that it was difficult. It’s just that a shorter day hiking to the other lakes I previously saw is a pretty reasonable option. My plan was to do just that and see how the day was going. I was expecting that might be as far as I would hike today, and I would only end up at Island Lake if I was feeling ambitious.

I could have continued on to the Red Lake trail, which on the map looks like it would come to the shoreline of another part of the lake, but I was almost halfway through the time I had allotted myself for this hike. I knew that I probably did have enough time, but I decided to head back anyway. The sweetener was that if I was making good time, I could hike to yet another lake.

On my way back, I was thinking to myself, I should be near Pear Lake now. I couldn’t see anything, but then it looked like the trees might indicate a possible lake below. Soon thereafter, I spotted a mark that I had left in the trail earlier. Then I could spot the lake through the trees. I bushwhacked, but soon found the actual spur trail.

Pear Lake was a marvelous spot for my snack. It was beautiful, not unlike the rest of the lakes in the area, and I was content to sit there and enjoy the scenery for a while. Then I worked my way down the shore through semi-dry mud and a multitude of rocks and logs lining the water. On my way back I figured that it would probably be easier to take off my boots and just walk through the shallow water. But instead I climbed through the bushes and soon found a use path that took me back to the spur. Do I have any pictures to show you how wonderful the lake looked? No, since I was looking straight into the sun and the pictures wouldn’t have turned out well. It’s too bad that I didn’t spot the side trail in the morning when the light would have been better.

I was making good time. Once I reached the junction, I oriented my map and saw that I would be looking straight into the sun if I hiked to Beal Lake, so I skipped that option. I ended up getting back to the trail head sooner than expected. Tomorrow I have the option of another hike to a bunch of lakes also in the Sky Lakes Wilderness, but that one involves more elevation gain than today’s hike, which had more than enough. Actually it wasn’t really that bad, but if I decide to hike the Seven Lakes trail it would be a lot of work just to get to the first of them.

I was pleased that I was able to hike farther than I had anticipated. That won’t impress you, but sometimes when I get something in my head I like to complete it just because it’s there. Stretch goals is a term sometimes used in business, and elsewhere as far as I know. The other day at a trail head someone asked me if this was what I do for a living. First I told him my job. Then I backtracked and agreed that this is exactly what I do for a living.