We started this adventure at 0800 on Friday morning with no drama, every one was ready and I was excited! This was my second trip to Grandaddy with my son Coltin, I went there once before with the scouts and when I finally decided I wanted to do a trek; I knew I had to include another visit in out prep hikes.
We arrived at the Grand view trailhead around 11 am and hit the trail soon after, the weather was warn and there was a cool breeze. I neglected to note the temperature before we left the trailhead but it wasn't hot. About a quarter mile in we reached the Wilderness boundary.
It was all uphill from there, it is roughly 2.9 miles to Hades pass and it is appropriately named. At the top of the pass Heart lake is visible; the first one is an unnamed pond.
Another mile from the pass you will cross a small section of ground between Betsy and Grandaddy lake.
Hear is the aforementioned son of mine (the greatest hiking buddy ever)! His pack weighed in at 33lbs and I could barely keep up with him. At over 10000ft I end up sucking a lot of wind and dust just trying to keep up.
Here is a photo of the Motley Crew I was leading, who in there right mind would trust me with bringing them into the back country?
At the trail junction our navigator Trevyn was checking the map and what a great time to take a breather!
Once we had our location confirmed we set off to make camp among the trees.
Coltin and I decided to try out our new Hammocks, they are comfortable to lounge around in but I didn't enjoy the two nights I slept in them. The attached bug nets are nice, and of course being able to sleep beneath the stars without being drained of blood by mosquitos is AWESOME!
Once camp was set it was time to check out the lake and try our luck for the often hard to find Grandaddy Cutthroat trout. The weather did not cooperate and we had heavy winds all weekend. Well not all weekend it quieted down as we were leaving Sunday morning, go figure!
After catching nothing at Grandaddy we took the short 1/4 mile walk over to Betsy lake. Layne and Connor caught fish here but the rest of us got skunked. Sorry no picture of their fish, both boys had them back in the water before I could get the camera out.
This is my 10000th picture by the way. I have had this Sony for three years now and I love it; I take it on every trip. This is a small island at Betsy lake.
More fishing shots.
Saturday Morning we had breakfast, busted camp and hit the trail on our way to Pine Island lake. As you leave Grandaddy and pass by Betsy lake you come to a junction to a trail the cuts through the Grandaddy basin to Rainbow lake. We did not take this route, but we did visit this lake last year and it is a nice place if you like pasture for the many horses that come through. We just wanted to spend our second night at Pine Island.
Farther along the trail to Pine Island you'll come to Fish hatchery lake and we had to stop and wet a line.
What a beautiful lake!
There wasn't very may flowers in the basin, but I did find one north of the lake.
One mile north of Fish hatchery lake is Pine island lake and our destination for the last night of our weekend trip. I will bet you'll never guess why they call it Pine island.
We set camp on the south side of the lake and tried our luck here.
What a beautiful lake!
We managed to catch a few of these fatties! Thanks to Greg for figuring it out; no fish were killed and safely released back into the water. Now if there wasn't the 1/4 mile from any body of water fire restriction, this one may have been on the menu.
After fighting the hurricane force gales (well maybe I am embellishing a little) we went back to camp for a well deserved meal. Greg even found a built in recliner!
After dinner we fished a little more and some of the boys hammed it up for the camera.
That evening the moon came up and boy was it bright!
The next morning it was cold, very cold and the water was calm; even a few fish were rising. We had breakfast and busted camp knowing we had a long six mile hike back to the trailhead, We left a little after 8 am and hard charged down the trail, up over Hades pass and made it to the trail head at 10:48 am. That's why we call ourselves the "Hard Chargers"! Here is a shot before the sun came up.
Our parting group shot.
From the left, top row we have: Layne, Trevyn, Garrick, Greg, Ryan (Shaggy), and me. The bottom row we have: Coltin, Conner, Russell, and their senior patrol leader the great and powerful Bryce. It was quite the adventure and a great bunch of kids. A special thanks to Greg for risking sore joints and blisters.
Ryan.
