well it was just too nice a day to stay home so i went to the fight the crowds at Burnt Lake. but no one was there! i got to the trailhead a bit after 830 to find 3 other vehicles. i passed one group near the top but the other 2 must've gone on farther than the lake. so did the couple i passed(there's all kinds of options going up past the lake). i had the place to myself for almost 3 hours in absolutely perfect weather. probably about 75 with an on and off breeze to keep it cool. even after that it was just a small trickle of people. never more than 5 total at any time all day.
Burnt Lake is the same basic theme as Mirror Lake but a little harder and farther to get to so it's much less crowded. there is not one sign anywhere that tells you it's ahead on the road until you actually get to the trailhead. you get the perfect reflection of Mt Hood in the lake from a number of viewpoints. today there was an invasion of little black and white butterflies. tons of them everywhere along with quite a few of the brighter orange variety which really like landing on you.. there's really not much in the way of flowers but they must really like the little mud puddles by the lakeshore. bugs were not bad at all today. there were some really big trout (big for that small a lake) and you could hear the splash as they jumped every few seconds. in between it was so quiet that the butterflies were noisy as they fluttered around.
after a nice little 3 1/2 mile moderately uphill workout it was just a lazy day sitting on a log in the water waiting to see what happens. which is usually not a whole heck of a lot. and of course that makes it all downhill going down. it's funny to see how far the path through the snow a few weeks ago was so far from the 'real' trail. not a trace of snow at that level anymore. just another horrible day.... | 
