Capturing the Art of Nature
Greendrop Lake, Finally
A few years back I set out on a hike to Lindeman and Greendrop lakes but ran out of time before reaching the second lake. So it was satisfying to finally reach it.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2008
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I have hiked to Liumchen Lake twice before and tried to get to Greendrop on the second of those trips, but so far I hadn’t seen Greendrop. So it has been on my to-do list for some time and I definitely was going to get there today. I also obtained a new antenna for my back country communications and this was an excellent site to test it out. So as this was a longer hike, we set out quite early and arrived at the trail head by 9AM – not super early but it was good enough for this hike.
Our first task was to set up the new antenna and configure it for use. That took a bit longer than expected as it was our first attempt with this configuration. Today was also Ethan’s first trip as a licensed amateur radio operator, so he was having fun trying out various things with his hand held. Finally it was up and we were on our way. Today, Edwin joined us for the hike so there were three of hiking to the lakes. I quite enjoy having both of them along for company on the longer hikes.
The first part of the hike is the steepest section as it passes through lush green forest and parallels Post Creek on the way to Lindeman. The trail is well marked and maintained which makes it easy to follow, but does require concentration when scrambling over roots and rocks. The first part is also a popular hike and we encountered several groups along the trail. In a half hour we arrived at the start of Lindeman Lake and came across one group that had been camping beside the lake. It was still mostly overcast when we first arrived at the lake with the clouds hanging low on the slopes over the lake making for a lovely setting. Ed was having fun getting out on the logs to get some unique photos.
We made our way along the lake and reached the far end in another 45 minutes. I stopped many times gathering photos along the way. The trees were well into their fall colours and I was quite impressed with the deeper reds that were sprinkled throughout the trail. I kept hoping to see the castellated peaks that tower above the lake, but the clouds kept them obscured and I will need to make another visit to photograph them. Once past Lindeman, our trail made its way up the slope above the creek and brought us across several wide sections of rock covered sections that got quite tiring after a while.
The trail offered a wide variety of things to photograph, which is one of the reasons I love coming into the back country. The grand vistas and colours are spectacular this time of year but so are the many small clumps of mushrooms one almost steps on as we hike along. It is hard keeping focused on both the macro and micro worlds so as to not miss too much. It took us about 90 minutes of hiking once past Lindeman to reach Greendrop. The last third of this section was a nice easy trail at creek level through a dense forested area. Then we arrived at Greendrop, unloaded our gear, ate our lunch and had a nice rest before heading back.
I didn’t find Greendrop to be as scenic as Lindeman but then I only saw it from the one end and perhaps I will come again and hike the trail that continues along the lake and on to the Silver-Skagit region. There are a number of clearings out here for back-country camping which seem quite inviting. While eating lunch we did more radio testing and found our setup to be working very well. Our handhelds reached the truck with a solid signal despite the heavy forestation and being at the far end of a dog-leg shaped valley. Ethan was able to chat with fellow Hams in White Rock So we confirmed that we had a solid communication channel with home and any needed emergency services along the entire hike – better than I was expecting!
We started off on our return and quickly made our way through the forested section and then up the slope to traverse the first of the many scrambles over the rocky sections. I was quickly becoming very tired of climbing over rocks and by the end of the hike I had definitely had more than my fill of rocks. We stopped along the return hike to gather photos of the things we missed on the way out, and finally arrived back at the truck at 3:20PM. So the hike took a bit over 6 hours and was a lot of fun but definitely tiring for me.
I sure was glad to get another chance to reach Greendrop and very satisfied to have made it to our goal. The scenery was lovely as always, even with the mostly overcast weather that was threatening rain. A few miles down the road, as we headed home, we encountered the first of the showers that people back home had been enjoying all day. So we got back just in time to avoid getting wet! The new radio antenna was a vast improvement over the 2m Yagi I was using earlier and will serve us well in future trips.