This was probably one of my favorite adventures, see that eroded part of the trail in the first photo? That was a killer to get up.
We didn't realize it at first, but on our way down to the lake, there were campers everywhere we looked, so when we arrived at the lake there was nowhere to set up camp. We decided to retrace our steps and find another, less crowded space.
The way back up was steep and unforgiving, with a sheer drop on one side and sharp rocks exposed from weather erosion on the other. However, with a few tries and two sweaty foreheads later, we made it up.
Our decent back down the other side of the ridge was no problem, a few hairpin turns, but the scenery and our trucks kept us calm.
We pulled of the side of the trail onto this little flatspot (second photo) and set up camp for the night. As we were getting ready for bed though, a whole group of Razors came by with flashing lights and blaring music, there had to have been at least forty or so. It was actually an interesting sight to see the whole mountain lit up by blue, red, and green lights.
The next morning, we woke to the sound of the small creek just feet from us. We enjoyed a quick breakfast and decided to get some unique photos, so we hiked the ridge right next to us.
It didn't look like a very intense climb from our campsite, but around 30 minutes later and we were only half way up the ridge. However, the climb was well worth it, the scenery was breathtaking , we must have hiked and extra thousand feet (camp at roughly 12,000 ft).
When we reached the top we had a whole 360 view of the surrounding area, one side we had the beautiful lake (third photo), and the other side we had mining ruins, the creek, and our trucks.
