IN THESE WOODS: DAY 87: ALOHA LAKE

Sunrise at 5:00 something from our tent on Aloha Lake.

miles: 20

Aloha Lake --> Richardson Lake

Rocky and I tend to wake up at 5:00. This wouldn't be the case if Rocky were in charge of wake-up, it is simply that I wake up naturally out here VERY EARLY for some unknown reason. I typically have to prod Ben to get movin' but he loves hiking in the early morning too (once he's up) so once he's sitting up, he's in good spirits and we tend to pack up and get hiking by 6:00am.

I realize now, that this may seem extreme. Why, when we are no longer in the desert, would we do such a thing? At home, in real life, I would never EVER dream of waking up before 9:00am if I didn't ABSOLUTELY have to. The thing is - out here, I love hiking in the morning. It is fresh, crisp, cool, pleasant, quiet, and the miles go by much faster when you are cruising in a.m. The photo's turn out better, the lighting is more interesting, and there is more of an abundance of wildlife in the morning. I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. Dawn and dusk hiking are two of my most favorite things.

Who likes a mid-day sun lighting the landscape? It can be quite bright and boring.

I prefer mornings out here.

Ben sleeping like a baby during the most epic sunrise.

Sunrise to the south.

By 6:00am the colors had changed quite a bit.

So we got going before everyone else was awake.

The hiking through Desolation Wilderness is relatively easy and we are familiar with the terrain so we are having a blast! The mosquitos DID come out at some point, but they weren't very bad.

Looking back on where we'd come from.

From the top of Dicks Pass.

From the top of Dicks Pass looking back at the trail climbing up to Dicks Peak.

Our first lunch spot.

Fontanillis Lake - second lunch spot later in the afternoon while we waited for the Wolf Pack to catch up.

Fontanillis Lake - my favorite lake.

Lunch.

Met this little guy on the trail with these little shoes! TOO CUTE. Can you tell what those are? Those are glove thumbs off of a large mans work glove.

We ended up camping 2 miles short of where we had originally planned to stop - setting up at Richardson Lake. This was a HUGE lake, perfect for swimming, had it not been our only water source. It was the temperature of bath water...

AND FULL OF CRAWDADS!

Dr. Slosh is very familiar with crawdads and was thrilled to go crawdad-ing and cook them up!