Capturing the Art of Nature
Brohm Lake Hike
Hiking Season is now here and I hadn’t done a hike since last year. So a quick jaunt around Brohm seemed like a great place to start.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2012
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July is only a few weeks away and with it comes my mountain peak hikes. So I felt I needed to get a bit conditioned for hiking by starting out with an easier hike. Although I have hiked Brohm Lake a couple times in the past, I never hiked the western ridge to a viewpoint. So it seemed like a good goal for the day, weather permitting. Fortunately the weather looked ideal for a hike and so Ethan and set off for the lake and the start of our day of hiking.
Along the drive in, Ethan was trying to remember which lake this was, hoping it was not the one he really hated. Later at about the two –thirds point we determined this was his hated hike! But today it was going very well and not at all like his memory. We felt that the reason for the prior difficulty was due to the camera bag we were lugging around. I now have a smaller hiking setup which is much lighter and easier to take along. So in the end Ethan’s view of the hike was redeemed.
We arrived at the lake parking lot before 11, not really early enough for a major hike but for this one it would be just fine. I really quite like the hike around the lake as there are quite a few interesting sights as one makes their way around the trail. Around the parking area the shore is very rugged with tall boulders dropping down to the lake edge which give a dramatic look to the photos. As one hikes south the terrain changes to a flat marshy mode with lots of tall grass choking the surface of the lake. Here there is a long wooden foot-bridge which crosses over the marshy portion of the lake. The bridge offers a great number of textures by itself but it also opens up many angles on the lake to enjoy.
On the far side of the bridge the trail forks, the right branch follows the lake edge north and has been the way we have gone in the past. The left branch initially leads south and then curves around to the north on the far side of a ridge. One can from there take a short side trail up to a minor peak where there is an old observation platform. Along this portion of the trail I spotted some lovely sheer rock walls with ample mosses and greenery hanging down from it. The fresh greens of spring made for a very rich look and I was stopping often to gather a few photos. I really need to come with a couple of flash units to provide some fill light but those were not with me today. Closer to the top we came by some amazing patches of skunk cabbage – the flowers were not out yet but the leaves were huge and rich in bright greens. I gathered a number of photos of the plants.
At the top of the ridge we met up with a hiking group of seniors who were enjoying the view to the west. Before I got out to enjoy the scene, we pulled out our camp stoves and started cooking our lunch. We found a wide platform which formed the top step of a short set of stairs which offered a nice level spot for our burners and there we cooked our soup. Once done cooking and eating, I wandered around the area looking for views and taking some photos. I chatted with the group of seniors who were trying to determine the name of the peak directly to our west. I figured it was Alpha Peak as it was quite striking and looked like what I remembered it to be – checking later confirmed my guess. Once I had gathered the photos that caught my eye, Ethan and started down the trail and the connection back to the main loop trail around the lake. After descending for 15 minutes we joined up with the main trail and continued north around the lake. We didn’t want to follow some of the side trails that lead to the shore of the lake so we didn’t actually have much lake view as we made our way to the north end of the lake. Coming back south on the east side soon brought us back to the edge of the lake with some nice views of people fishing in its middle. The trail starts at lake level but soon it reaches a rock wall with a long set of stairs providing access to the top. This is convenient but tiring. Once we reached the top of the wall. We noticed that there were a number of nice new stairs and bridges that had been recently added to the trail to make it easier. This is nice but does detract a bit from the feel.
Heading back to the truck along this section of the hike went fairly quickly as it was getting hot out and I wasn’t stopping to take photos as much as I was on the way out earlier in the day. But I was satisfied with my catch so far and we achieved the primary goal of reaching the peak and getting some hike conditioning. Once back to the truck we got the AC turned on and quickly cooled down so we could better enjoy the afternoon and the drive home. It was a pleasant hike and a good start for the season. The view from the viewpoint was good to the west, reasonable to the south but the eastern view was now over-grown and one wasn’t able to see the lake. But I had a good time and would enjoy doing the hike again.