I know many of you have been here before, but for those who haven’t Indian Heaven is a wonderfully rich patchwork of alpine lakes, lush meadows and small peaks nestled more or less between Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens. For the most part the area lacks the majestic views and dramatic landscapes of places like the Wallowas or the Wind Rivers but personally I found it to be an exceptionally charming and beautiful place. Certainly its lakes and meadows are worthy of a trip in their own right as they are as gorgeous as any I've seen anywhere. But there are some fine views to be had as well, and if you’re willing to scramble up one of its small, rocky peaks I’m sure even better panoramas await.
I left Portland early on Thursday, August 21. It was cloudy and pleasant when I left town but as I moved up through the gorge it started to mist a little. By the time I arrived at the Thomas Lake trailhead the mist had turned to a steady, cold rain. Ick! Not what I'd expected for the start of an August backpack trip! Oh well, the weather was supposed to improve in the days to come so I popped open my little trekking umbrella and headed up the trail, my dog Kirah eagerly leading the way…
It had been raining here for a couple of days leaving long stretches of the trail pretty flooded. My feet got soaking wet but my umbrella, rain hat and wind shirt kept the rest of me mostly dry. By early afternoon I made it to Blue Lake and grabbed the designated campsite at its northwest corner, which offered some shelter from the cold north wind. After setting up camp I searched for dry firewood for about an hour but found very little. Kirah was soaking wet and I’d hoped to get her dry before bed but my little fire did nothing to help. So in the early evening after dinner we hiked around the area a bit trying to warm up and dry out. The rain had stopped so I was able to finally take some pictures.
Blue Lake, Gifford Peak still in the clouds…
Nearby Lake Sahalee Tyee…
We did warm up some but I slept a little cold that first night. I didn’t see a mosquito all day, but that would change soon enough.
Friday morning I awoke to a chilly 41 degrees, but it wasn’t raining and there was actually some blue sky to be seen.
And before long, glorious sunshine…
Finally Gifford Peak was out of the clouds…
From Blue Lake I headed north on the PCT with Clear Lake in mind as my next destination. An hour later we arrived at lovely Junction Lake…
I saw some other hikers here taking a break and then four ladies also came through, each with her own personal llama…
Overall though I saw very few people the whole trip, just a couple of small groups and a few solo hikers each day. I suppose most folks are waiting for the mozzies to clear out.
Speaking of which, it was somewhere around Junction Lake that I met my first mosquito. Earlier I’d read that mosquitoes aren’t active below 55 degrees, but for the mozzies of Indian Heaven it’s more like 50. I observed this carefully, and it turned out to be a pretty reliable threshold each day. Above 50 degrees there is absolutely nowhere you can hide from them except your tent, there’s even plenty of them on the drier ridges and hills. Below 50 life is good. They were so thick at times that I nearly trapped one inside my camera body while changing lenses.
I positively can’t stand DEET, so for this trip I packed a couple ounces of Sawyer’s 20% Picaridin product and I gotta say it worked quite well. Not perfect, but much better than the 7% Cutter product I tried two years ago. It has a slight odor but it’s not objectionable to me and as a bonus it won’t eat sunglasses or cameras like DEET. For added protection I also wore long nylon pants, a Buzz-Off long sleeve shirt and Buzz-Off hat. I had a bug net too, but I found that with a little bit of Sawyer’s smeared on my face and neck I didn’t really need the head net.
So after four days in “Mosquito Heaven” I came away with about four or five bites on each arm, six or seven on each leg, one on my neck and one on my bum. That’s not too bad in my book as I’m generally a major mosquito magnet. One thing I’ve learned too is to smear some Benadryl cream on each and every bite when it first starts to itch. The cream stops the itch instantly and as long as the bites don’t itch you don’t scratch them which is generally why they welt up and get weepy and bothersome. Two days later now my bites are almost gone.
‘Nuff said about the skeeters, the next stop was Clear Lake where I got lucky and found a primo campsite right next to the lake…
This was below a huge talus slope where a resident pika chirped busily every few minutes. It was such a pretty spot I decided to camp here two nights and just do some day hiking on Saturday. In the evening I hiked around the lake a little stretch and got a decent shot as the sun sank low in the sky…
Saturday I did a little day hike up to the saddle over Bird Mountain to see if I could catch some views, and happily I did.
Mt. Adams…
And a little peek north to Mt. Ranier and nearby Sawtooth Mountain…
One of several little rock gardens along the way…
After a snack back at camp I headed over to check out some of the neighboring lakes.
Cultus Lake in the early evening…
And then on to Deep Lake…
I chose a different route for my hike out on Sunday, turning this trip into a sort of figure eight loop. Here’s a map if you’re interested. Though separated from my route in by only a mile or less, the character of the hike out was different by light years. The hike in on the PCT and all of the day hiking I did was in dense conifer forest with no views to speak of and just the occasional lake or marsh. The route out though, past Lemei Lake and then on an abandoned stretch of trail down to the Rock Lakes, was about half through gorgeous open meadows or through marshy wetlands with lots of ponds and small winding streams. A very pretty hike indeed.
One of the many meadows along the way…
Swampy Lemei Lake…
Along this stretch I saw the first of several large bear scats, each loaded with berry seeds. It struck me as odd because he or she was a long way from where the berries are.
A huge meadow along the abandoned trail, one of the largest I’ve seen…
Back on the main trail, this is Rock Lake…
And then above Eunice Lake there’s a little viewpoint west to Mt. St. Helens…
So that’s it, about 24 miles round trip with 3500 feet total elevation gain. A really a gorgeous area and just 70 miles from Portland! Next time I’ll definitely come in September instead and leave the bug juice at home.
As a side note, I gave my gear a serious makeover this year knocking about 4 lbs. off my base pack weight bringing it to around 12 lbs., so if anyone’s interested I could talk about that a little as well.
Fun trip!
Gordon
