Dates: Friday, July 31st – Sunday, August 2, 2020
Duration: 3 days, 2 nights; ~19 miles
Group Members: Nick McGuire, Meghan K. & Ranger the dog
Pack Weights: Nick ~44 lbs, Meghan ~30 lbs
Notes: Weather forecasted to be between 50-55F Lows and 72-77F Highs. Originally planned to be at the trailhead around 10AM but had to push it out till Noon. Used Megan’s Sawyer gravity filter for water most of the time but used the Steripen a couple times for my Nalgene. Didn’t bring tent rain fly which was a good call given how warm it was.
Outbound Travel: Left Davis around 9:15AM and reached the Grouse Ridge Road turnoff of Bowman Road about 11AM. Used the turnout on the left side a little way up the road to park and wait for Meghan to arrive around 11:20AM before we proceeded up the road. Her Mazda 3 did fine on the dirt road but it was definitely a bit bumpy and rough in spots, even for the truck. Reached the Grouse Ridge Trailhead parking lot just before Noon. A decent number of vehicles were parked there (a dozen or two) but there were still some parking spots along the perimeter.
Day 1: (~6.7 miles) Grouse Ridge Trailhead to 5 Lakes Basin
Left the trailhead a little after Noon and headed out towards Glacier Lake. The trail was easy to follow (especially without all the snow this year) and we reached Glacier Lake a little after 2PM. The lake wasn’t frozen over at all like last year and there were a few people camped out or hanging out in the area. After briefly taking in the view of the lake we proceeded North on the trail towards 5 Lakes Basin. We reached the lake at the base of the Sand Ridge trail junction and proceeded East along its South shore before heading North along its East shore. There were a few people around but no one really camped out yet. We proceeded North-East off-trail towards the lake with the stone campground I’ve camped at previously but as we got close enough to see it we could tell that people had already occupied the camps site we wanted. There really aren’t many other good spots around the lake to camp so we proceeded off-trail South-East towards the other main lakes in the 5 Lakes Basin. We reached the North shore of the lake that the main trail (which I’d never taken or found) to 5 Lakes Basin stops at. There were already people camped around the lake but there was one OK spot in the trees near the lake that we decided to temporarily claim while we looked for others so we left our packs there and headed North-East to check out the other lake nearby.
We found a spot up in some rocks on the west shore of the lake that was pretty exposed but it had some flat spots for tents and was close to the water with a nice view. We went back and grabbed our packs and moved them to claim this spot and then continued searching for a better spot North along the West shore. Found a decent spot at the North-West corner of the main body of the lake before it necked down into a smaller, shallower lagoon. The spot had flat spots for a couple 2-person tents and a decent fire pit with some stone benches. We setup camp there, I went swimming and then enjoyed a couple beers. The water was surprisingly warm (so much so that we didn’t even put the beers or Nalgene’s in the water to cool them). There was a large group with kids camped at the south end of the lake and a group of 4 guys came by our site, almost camping way too close at a small spot we’d skipped but luckily, they moved on to the lagoon area a little way north of us. Set up a bear hang before bed a little way to the south of our campsite. Went to bed a little before 10PM after watching the stars for a bit but with almost a full moon it wasn’t a great sky for viewing even with no clouds or obstructions. It was quite warm throughout the night and morning so not bringing the tent fly was a good choice (just wore a light thermal top and shorts; even socks and a beanie weren’t ever need).
Day 2: (~7.6 miles) 5 Lakes Basin to Penner Lake via Sand Ridge & Upper Rock Lake
Woke up around 7AM. Didn’t get the best sleep because my sleeping pad was leaking and the moon was really bright but it wasn’t the worst. Made breakfast and broke down camp, heading out a bit before 9AM. Headed back towards the north shore of the original lake we’d set our packs down at and were able to pick up the official trail heading back over towards Sand Ridge. It wasn’t well marked or traveled in some places and forked a couple times but we were able to follow it all the way to the south-east end of the lake at the base of the Sand Ridge trail. We hiked along the south shore of the lake and part way up the east short to pick up the Sand Ridge trail which we took all the way back until it intersected with the trail we’d followed to Glacier Lake the previous day. After following it back towards the trailhead for just a short way we got to the turnoff for the trail heading towards Sawmill Lake & Rock Lake (13E28). We followed this trail for a few miles, past Middle Lake (which you couldn’t really see but introduced an area of mosquitoes for a bit) and Shotgun Lake before reaching the turnoff to the west to head to Rock Lake instead of Sawmill Lake. We took this trail, following the switch backs (that are on the newer maps but not on the older topo maps) up to the turnoff for Upper Rock Lake. Here we detoured a quarter mile over to check out Upper Rock Lake (Lower Rock Lake is another quarter mile beyond Upper Rock Lake) and had a brief lunch a little after Noon. Rock Lake was pretty although there didn’t appear to be very many spots to camp, at least on the north shore. We then headed back to the main trail and followed it south towards Penner Lake.
It was a little hot and exposed as we got closer to Penner and Ranger started to get a bit tired and hot (not a lot of shade to cool his paws). We reached Penner Lake a bit after 2PM. There were a couple guys camped in the spot I’d camped back in 2008 in the north-east corner of the lake although there was another open spot right next to them on the lake. We passed this up for now and went searching for a spot further south along the eastern shore but there were a decent amount of people and we couldn’t find a good spot. We set our packs down in one spot but it wasn’t right on the lake, was pretty rocky and not very nice. We hiked back to the north shore of the lake without packs and started heading west around the top of it to see if there were any spots there but the banks are mostly steep and not really and spots (later on we saw some people found a spot if you continued all the way over to the west shore; there were already people camped on the peninsula out in the lake). Not finding anything we stopped back at the first spot and asked the guys there if they minded us taking the spot next to them which they didn’t so we claimed it and moved our packs up from where we’d left them. The spot was in the trees and right on the water although also next to the trail. Not a lot of flat ground for tents but we managed to find 2 flat enough spots for our tents. There were a couple logs setup around a small fire pit and bit of distance and privacy from the guys just to the north of us. Setup camp and then swam out to the rock cliff near the peninsula to jump off the tall rocks a few times. Water was a touch cooler than the other lake but still pretty warm and very comfortable. Spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, sharing a beer and making dinner. Played cards and then went to bed a little after 9PM.
Day 3: (~4.7 miles) Penner Lake to Grouse Ridge Trailhead
Woke up around 6:15AM. Made breakfast and broke down camp, heading out a bit before 9AM. Headed south along the trail (12E11) towards the Crooked Lakes and Island Lake. Trail split in multiple directions a couple times due to people creating shortcuts or heading down to nearby lakes but we were able to follow it relatively easily to Island Lake. A decent number of people camped around its north and east shores. Arrived at the intersection with the trail that heads west towards Carr Lake and continued east towards the trailhead. Came across a herd of cattle with bells on that we’d heard the previous day climbing down Sand Ridge but never saw. Made it back up to the trailhead parking lot by about 11:15AM. Lots more cars now, parked in the middle of the paring lot in a big row instead of just around the perimeter (probably 3x the number of cars).
