The Adventures of Sarah & Nate continued... Lake Caroline in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness

Here we go!


Oooh the adventure.

This weekend, Nate and I wanted to go backpacking. It had been a goal of mine since Spring, but I honestly didn't know how I was going to achieve it, until I met Nate.

With the car all locked up, and Nate all packed up - we were off. As a note - I did carry a "day pack" and it held my 10 essentials... but Nate's held the sleeping bags, tent, all of the food, and the sleeping pads :)

So - at 4pm on Saturday (slightly late start) we trekked up 3 miles past Little Eight Mile Lake (2,000 ft elevation gain) and then onto another trail leading to Lake Caroline. We went up another mile when the sun began to fade, and we started to look for a campsite.

Wow - it's hard to be us.

We set up camp and set out to use the new camping stove that I just got! Nate made some good freeze dried Noodely Parmesean goodness and we finished with some Tiramisu - freezedried of course. It's amazing how anything can taste REALLY GOOD that late at night, when you're cold and you're more than a mile in the sky on the side of a mountain.

Nate was smart (and cute) and brought his military issued Gortex with him - he got the desert color and I got the dark color. Wow - we are cute! I bet you even have a hard time seeing where we are in these pictures... good thing I have a hat on!

We got in the tent and laid down - and it was 8pm. Tired, pooped, exhausted - and on a slight incline, we attempted to sleep. The moon came out at about 830p and it lit up the entire area around us. No rain, a little wind (at times a lot of wind)... and then an odd knocking sound. I immediately was scared, but good 'ol Nate to the rescue - got out of the tent and threw a rock at whatever it was. We named it the Northern Cascade Knocking Marmot.

This is what it looked like.

Scary, huh?

So, we packed up Sunday morning and headed up. Up to 6,700 feet elevation, to Lake Caroline. It was really fun to know how to read a map, understand a compass, and feel comfortable in the outdoors - all with a person that I absolutely adore. Amazing.

We went through the most beautiful area that I've ever been in - and all different kinds. Rocks - fields - meadows - forests - all amazing to look at. Sometimes you don't believe your eyes. You don't want to look at the trail because of the beauty around you.

The 12 mile hike and the 3,500 feet that we climbed... it was amazing that every time you stopped to take a look around - you saw a new set of mountains, sometime that you couldn't see 100 feet from where you were before. I never understood what the "Enchantments" were... until I went here. You can see this amazing line of mountains... and you're in them. Your voice echos - and yes, there were a few Yeeaaahhh's through those mountains :)

Lake Caroline was a hard climb... but we made it... had a really fun time.

and...

it was totally worth it. Once we got over the crest of the mountain - we saw it...

and it was amazing.

We decided at the top that we would go swimming... although after we ate (and continued to fight with all of the bugs) I was questioning my decision. During lunch we saw what Marissa would call a Chotter. It looked like a Chipmunk/Otter. Just a little guy swimming around in the lake. He got out of the lake, shook off, and ran around on the logs for a while. Nate got a picture, but the little guy was so small you can't see him. Anyway, Nate was convincing... and we jumped in... to REALLY COLD GLACIER FED WATER.

After drying off, reattaching Moleskin to already OUCH blisters, we headed back up and out of Lake Caroline. Then we were going down. Down 6 miles. That hurt. By mile 5 we were HURTING. Knees, muscles, joints... I tried to drink the water we had filled up with at the lake and then put iodine tabets into.. but EW! So, now Sarah's seeing things... slightly blury like... and we needed to get back to Cartman.

We make it down (the log picture is at approx. 1 1/4 miles to go)

Needless to say, we got out pretty quickly.

On the drive out of the canyon, we drank a entire bottle of water, and ate an entire bag of beef jerky. It had never tasted better.

Camping Stove: $59.97

Foam mat for sleeping: $22.99

Freeze dried pasta: $3.98

Price for a weekend in the wilderness with really awesome company? PRICELESS.