Tamanah Lake and the Bad News Trail!

Monday a group of us decided to hike to Tamanah Lake. It was a grand adventure! There were five of us starting out and only four of us made it back in one piece :)

Up at the lake we had a beautiful view of Taggart Lake and the Valley below. That would be Brad trying to photo bomb the picture. :)

Kate and I at Tamanah Lake. On the hike to the lake Brad had been telling us how great it was to be tall. He had easily hopped over a log that was laying across the trail. Kate and I were coming right behind him and both of us stepped up on the log to get over it. There was a beehive built right underneath that log. Brad must have startled the bees when we landed on the other side, because both Kate and I got stung by a bee. It was kind of funny because we both got stung just as Brad was finishing his spill of how great it is to have long legs. We all had to laugh, but that sting sure hurt. :)

The Waterfall just below Lake Tamanah

 

 

Amy at the lake

 

 Esther

 

Kate and Me

 

The Grand Misadventure!

Today was the day of our Grand Misadventure! We decided that we were going to hike up to Tamanah Lake and a waterfall before work.

Grand idea?

I've had better :)

The trip was to be 11 miles roundtrip. We began hiking about 10:15 this morning.

Mistake Number 1: Time. We should have left a little earlier to attempt an adventure that big.

 

Early on we made good time. We actually thought we would make the lake and the falls in no time at all.

 

 

Then we got off track. Mistake number two: Not only was it an 11 mile hike and we only had about 4 hours, but it also involved covering several miles on an unmaintained trail.

Over time fatigue set in as we were cutting through brush and jumping over trees and rocks. We both became a little clumsy in our steps.

 

 

 

Eventually we saw the Falls from a far, but because of time restraints we weren't able to get all the way up to them. We lost the trail too many times and bush whacked our own too much. All our bush whacking cost us valuable time.

 

On the way back from the Falls we thought we would be fine and would make good time because we had linked back up with the trail. We were for a little while. We lost the trail for the second time on the way down however and had to bush whack through some really thick brush. My legs are so cut up and bruised from all the bush whacking we did.

 

We were still a few miles from the car. Fatigue was setting in. I was beginning to feel light headed and dizzy. I went to reach for my water bottle. I had hoped that a drink would boost my moral. When I realized it was gone I almost cried. In my head I thought about going back to search for it. That thought process wasn't even logical. We'd covered so much ground off the trail since I'd had it last. There was also no rhyme or reason to the way we had cut our course...other than we knew the direction of the lake and that eventually if we kept going in that direction we should hit the trail. We didn't go back. We kept moving.

 

When we finally linked back up with the trail we started to run and ran the remaining two to three miles to the car. We stopped and filtered water from the creek about a mile from the car. We were both very dehydrated and fatigued at this point.

 

I look back on our grand misadventure and think I haven't had that much fun and not so much fun on the same hike in a long time! I will be going back :) It was definitely a challenge, but there were lots of fun elements to that hike as well. A lot of the trouble we encountered was due to our time restraints. I really want to get up to the lake as well as to the falls. Next time I will! :)

Live Concert Experience

I attended my first live concert on July 4th. The band was Old Crow Medicine Show. I went with some friends. There was a group of seven of us and we stood near the front in the mosh pit. My friend Danny offered to let me get up on his shoulders so I could see the band.

I had just climbed up there when I felt hands squeezing my butt. I was thinking what the heck! I couldn't imagine anyone in the group that would do that. I slapped the hands away and looked over and there was some woman giving me the thumbs up sign and smiling.

Some drunk woman (at least that is what I'm telling myself), grabbed my butt that night. It was awkward and I'd have to say that my butt has never felt more violated! Everyone I was with kept laughing about it. :)

Hanging Canyon-In July

The clouds rolled in on us during our hike. We didn't let the storm deter us from reaching our destination though. You might be asking: Did they get wet? The answer: Not really. We found some pretty good cover under some large rocks a couple of times.

 

Danny on the way to the Lakes

 

 

Ramshead Lake

 

 

Crags Lake