Sunday
Morning Hiking Series #3
Willow Heights to Dry Lake
Here's our third hike of the summer. Thanks go to anneke13 and
himilecyclist for the idea and to GBOTS for some modifications.
We'll start out at the Willow Heights trailhead. It's a moderate
and continuous ascent to a beautiful field. After traipsing though
the daisies, literally, we'll follow the trail around to the right
continuing past Willow Lake up to Dry Lake. That's why GBOTS get a
thanks. None of the trail maps I had show this part of the trail.
(I've got a new one now.) I wouldn't have found it without their
cache being there. The vertical between the lakes is a bit more
than that from the road to the meadow. Those allergic to steeps
should be fine with getting to Willow Lake, but may want to stay
there to avoid the steeper steep up to Dry Lake. We will return
from Dry Lake and follow the trail the rest of the way around
Willow Lake to get the caches on that side. For anyone who
absolutely loves steeps supposedly you can ascend another 1500 feet
from Dry Lake to the Great Western Trail that runs along the ridge.
There is a cache up there. I may try it some day. Total time, for
us tortises, including time to grab caches is about three
hours.
Once again we'll meet at 8 am and leave the cars by 8:05 am. If
you are running a few minutes late don't worry that initial ascent
will slow us down enough to allow you to catch up.
This area is relatively shady and we are starting early enough
to avoid the worst of the heat. Even with those advantages, please
be sure to have enough water for this summer hike. I will provide
cold drinks for the end of the hike (Presuming they don't end up
sitting in the cooler on my kitchen table when I leave the house
again.).
If you would like more information about the whole series of
hikes, check out the others in the series.
Come on out and have some fun hiking and
caching! Make a Sunday morning caching hike part of your month! See
you there!