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June
22, 2000
Make
sure you have enough water with you especially during dry season.
The trail is not maintained, grown with bushes and sometimes hard
to find. There are several blow-downs, some are hard to cross.
For
the first mile the trail steeply climbs through dense forest along
the creek. Do not take right forks of the trail, but stay on the
left one that is closer to the creek. In a mile trail comes out
of the woods and impressive view of green valley surrounded with
mountains opens to you. But the most impressive is the fact that
there is no where to go from this point - there are only thick,
thorny bushes in front of you. From this point everyone finds his
own way.
We
did the following: to minimize our way through the bushes we followed
the woods up the east slope (there is no trail there) until we saw
open area free from bushes. We used this area to go to the patch
of trees somewhat in a middle of the valley. We had to make some
of our way through the bushes, but not as many. After getting some
rest from sun and thorns, guess what - we had another bush area
to cross. Our goal was to get to the woods that grow, forming about
a 30 degree angle coming down the slope to Big Creek. Right before
entering the woods we crossed a creek that comes down from Pothole
Lake. Following the ridge that steeply climbs along Big Creek we
saw the trail again. Trail evens up and quickly leads to the lake.
The
lake is about 60% frozen and still has a lot of snow around it  .
This not very big lake with a little island is surrounded with steep
rocky slopes. There is a nice campsite on the other side of the
creek. On the way back we tried to look for a different way out.
Taking the west side of the creek did not work because of the thick
bushes there too. So we turned around and followed our steps back.
If you decide to go to this lake make sure you have long pants and
a long-sleeved shirt that you don't mind throwing out after you
finished your hike.
Enjoy!
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