We made it to the trailhead just after 10:30am and by some miracle, all 3 of our cars arrived at the same time. The road is in fairly good shape and I was able to navigate it in a Volvo S60 with new tires and about 5.8" of ground clearance. There would be 6 of us in the group this year, wide-eyed and hopeful for a good time in the woods. There were few other cars in the parking lot which was a good sign and we were on the trail by 11:00 am.
We read the reports of blowdowns on the trail but where others were discouraged, we saw a chance for real solitude. We encountered two day hikers on their way back down and these would be the only other people we would encounter for the next 4 days. They had ominous words for us like "you're building character" and "I've hiked this trail a lot and this is the worst I've ever seen it." But we soldiered on, navigating over, under and around at least 30-40 obstructions. No easy feat when you're carrying 40+ pounds of gear and 20 pounds of beer. At one point it occurred to me, this forest might have more trees blown down than standing up and somehow they all seem to have found their way onto the trail.
After many hours of spirit-crushing struggle, despair and dehydration we finally made it to the lower lake. The trail from there to the upper lake is overgrown in places but we found our way and made camp on the north shore of Upper Crater Lake by about 3:30pm.
Also in the trail reports were stories of unbearable mosquitos, the result of a late spring thaw. We found these reports to be totally and completely accurate. Our arrival to camp was met with a biblical plague of the bloodsuckers and we quickly donned bug nets and slathered ourselves in 100% DEET. I truly have never seen bugs this bad. Strangely, the bugs seemed to come in waves and at times were not so bad. When the wind picked up and flushed them out, we often had many hours of relative calm. Or we could escape up the ridge a ways and find respite. Anyway, we were determined to stay and kill as many of them as we could. We were not trapped on the mountain with the mosquitos. The mosquitos were trapped on the mountain with US.
Almost on a whim, I had decided for the first time to bring a fishing pole on this hike and I am glad I did. There are so many trout in the upper lake that fishing almost wasn't fun (almost). Catching a fish meant you had to wrestle the hook out of its mouth which seems a little too much like actual work. One of our party caught a fish on his very first cast. On another cast, I caught a trout literally the moment my lure hit the water. We were catching them so easily that I decided to dull the barb on my hook to make it easier to throw them back. I was using a basic wedding ring style spoon lure. We also used Powerbait with small hooks. I'll pack a hook puller tool next time.
Wildflowers are blooming. We saw deer, bats, squirrels, marmots and evidence of black bears at the lower lake (scat). We climbed the ridge to the top of Bigelow one day, scrambling up the "middle" chute and took in the views. We played Bocce Ball in camp as is our tradition. Drank beers. Shot dice. And quoted Tolkein. "What do they eat when they can't get Hobbit!" We didn't see another human being until we hiked out on the 5th day. Stopped in Chelan at Stormy Mountain Brewing to celebrate another successful hike.
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