Today's celebration of winter was quick solo jaunt to Redlouse Lake in the Ferris Lake Wild Forest. I've been eyeballing Redlouse Lake for some time, primarily because of it's cool sounding name. While I didn't see any of the dreaded "red lice", I did see plenty of snow (knee deep) and blue sky on the last day of March.
Arriving at the parking area adjacent to the bridge over the East Canada Creek (photo 1), I quickly oriented to the terrain. Being careful to spot and mark the steep slopes of Oregon Mt. through the trees (photo 2). The hike up the hill was pleasant enough, the woods were open and the snow was pretty firm. I did get a little messed up when I got to a little plateau area on the hillside and followed the wrong stream uphill. After a couple hundred yards, I realized my compass heading was slowly moving away from where I wanted it to be.:confused: Quickly backtracking, I picked up the correct water course and followed it up the hill.
The approach to Redlouse Lake wasn't too steep, but there were plenty of boulders, blow down and thick spruce to slow me up. Soon enough, I made it to the lake and busted through the thick spruce (photo 3). The lake sits astride the county line and I was sure to stop at the Hamilton County Visitors Center :rolleyes: for a cup of coffee and take a scenic picture (photo 4).
Everything at the lake was locked up solid, but I rarely trust the ice this late in the season. So, I walked around the marshy shore to find a spruce covered point on the north shore that was out of the wind. The point was small, but it was big enough to drop the pack and have lunch (photo 5). The view was fantastic and I soaked up the late March sun while I sipped my soup. As I was packing up to head back, two flocks of geese flew high overhead, winging their way north. Kind of cool. :)
The hike back down the hill was pretty straight forward as I skipped the scenic detour and headed straight back to Piseco Rd. I was going to hoof it over to House Pond, but I didn't really feel up to it this afternoon. I'll save that one for later. This hike seemed a little longer than I planned for as the wrong turn and blowdown/thick stuff slowed me down quite a bit. A good lesson reinforced for me today was that the compass is rarely wrong. Trust it.
Arriving at the parking area adjacent to the bridge over the East Canada Creek (photo 1), I quickly oriented to the terrain. Being careful to spot and mark the steep slopes of Oregon Mt. through the trees (photo 2). The hike up the hill was pleasant enough, the woods were open and the snow was pretty firm. I did get a little messed up when I got to a little plateau area on the hillside and followed the wrong stream uphill. After a couple hundred yards, I realized my compass heading was slowly moving away from where I wanted it to be.:confused: Quickly backtracking, I picked up the correct water course and followed it up the hill.
The approach to Redlouse Lake wasn't too steep, but there were plenty of boulders, blow down and thick spruce to slow me up. Soon enough, I made it to the lake and busted through the thick spruce (photo 3). The lake sits astride the county line and I was sure to stop at the Hamilton County Visitors Center :rolleyes: for a cup of coffee and take a scenic picture (photo 4).
Everything at the lake was locked up solid, but I rarely trust the ice this late in the season. So, I walked around the marshy shore to find a spruce covered point on the north shore that was out of the wind. The point was small, but it was big enough to drop the pack and have lunch (photo 5). The view was fantastic and I soaked up the late March sun while I sipped my soup. As I was packing up to head back, two flocks of geese flew high overhead, winging their way north. Kind of cool. :)
The hike back down the hill was pretty straight forward as I skipped the scenic detour and headed straight back to Piseco Rd. I was going to hoof it over to House Pond, but I didn't really feel up to it this afternoon. I'll save that one for later. This hike seemed a little longer than I planned for as the wrong turn and blowdown/thick stuff slowed me down quite a bit. A good lesson reinforced for me today was that the compass is rarely wrong. Trust it.
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