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Indian Heaven 8/4 - 8/6 Posted by pcauldwe (2006-08-07)

We had a very nice hike to Blue Lake in the Indian Heaven wilderness this past weekend, via the Thomas Lake trail.  The weather was beautiful, with clear blue skies and probably mid 80s during the day and mid to high 50s at night.  You gain about 700 feet over 3.5 miles, but the vast majority of that is in two quite short but very steep sets of swtichbacks.  The rest of the trail is mostly through open meadows Once the steep bits are out of the way, it's a pretty level hike the rest of the way into Blue Lake.  Luckily, we got in pretty early on Friday, so were able to snag one of the 9 designated campsites, just up a steep rise from the trail, near the North shore of the lake.  From there we had a great view of Gifford Peak The water in Blue Lake is amazingly clear Clear water with Gifford Peak in the background Saturday morning, we hiked up the PCT a bit to East Crater, and after quite a bit of reconnaisance decided to try bushwhacking up to the crater.  It was well worth the effort!  The lake is lovely, surrounded by low meadow on one side, and backed by the higher South side of the crater rim.  The kids found lots of little wildlife, including tons of frogs, newts, and dragonfly and caddis fly larvae.  Not much in the way of big wildlife, although we did see some deer, and got to watch a marten chase a squirrel across the path right in front of us.  I'd never seen one in the wild, so that was pretty groovy.  The mosquitoes were definitely present, but seemed to steer clear of the DEET, and were really only a problem for about an hour at dawn and dusk.  Much less of a hassle than I'd anticipated.  Two weeks ago I was up at Three Finger Jack, and the mosquitoes were so bad that we had to split.  Nowhere nearly that bad at Indian Heaven, particularly when the wind was blowing.  I'm hoping to go back some time and check out the places we didn't make it to, like Indian Racetrack and Junction and Cultus lakes.  Maybe next year.

Re: Indian Heaven 8/4 - 8/6 Posted by worldofaaron (2006-08-08)

It's good to know the mosquitoes are on the decline up there.  That's really something seeing a marten!  Thanks for posting!

Re: Indian Heaven 8/4 - 8/6 Posted by dondavies (2006-08-15)

I hiked the East Crater trail to Junction Lake, then the PCT to Elk Lake.  Sublime, as always. Mosquitoes were almost gone, but they did intensify in the early evening.   No huckleberries along the trail yet... probably a few more weeks before they're up this high.

Re: Indian Heaven 8/4 - 8/6 Posted by JosephSamuel (2006-09-05)

I'm glad you put the pics of Blue Lake in; I'll have to go there sometime. I've been to the Indian Heaven 3 times now but only in the northern half. I really need to brance out. It is interesting that there is a pond inside of East Crater. In 2002 or 2003 I was up there (in the early fall) and the meadow was totally dry but very beautiful (I could tell there had been water there) It reminded me of a zen garden....all rocks, grass, and dirt. Joseph

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