California
September 2, 2001
By Michael A. Wong
This trek required that we have a car at the southern most trail head, Stuarts Fork, and we would all meet at the Northern trail head at Coffee Creek near the OR border, about 100 road mile apart.
The Coffee Creek trail starts with no mercy...it's up and up for about 3 miles through forest. No dips, just up. You know when you've reached the ridge top because you then hike down and down an endless switchback trail. Normally I'm a very fast and fluid on down hill trails, let's say I was flying...until, at full force, I ran my right foot into a small boulder sticking up out of the trail. It smashed my big toenail up into my toe which I would find out as I removed my boot.
After many miles hiking through lush forest along a creek we came upon Grizzly Meadows. From here we looked up to a vertical wall with a waterfall dropping off an overhanging cliff. There were also many views of other high peaks glowing in the sun. We made our way up the side of the monolith granite wall which lead us to Grizzly Lake. We had been here a few years before to climb Thompson Peak, but were hit by a snow storm in June, which made it impossible, and too dangerous.
We set up camp next to the wonderful and beautiful Grizzy Lake, looking across the lake and up to the elusive Thompson Peak. We discussed or maybe argued about the route to the summit. We decided to traverse across the whole bowl above the lake, then cut up a gully to the Thompson Ridge. It all worked out, although took much longer than the route that I proposed. But standing on a summit seeing views in 360 degrees can't be beat. Looking back down to Grizzly Lake and down through the huge forested valley that we had traveled through was magnificent. I don't know all the names of the peaks, but we were on top of the world, and blessed with perfect weather. I was on top of Thompson Peak on my 49th Birthday like promised. Technology allowed us to call our wives - it's a great thing to be able to share the celebration over this wonderful victory. We set up camp very close to the summit. I set my sleeping bag on a ledge, so as to lay on my side for a view of Grizzly Lake. One of my favorite things in life is sleep under the stars for natures' spectacular sky show. Bright and clear, it didn't disappoint.
Wow, waking up to the morning light views on top of Thompson Peak can't be beat. Packing up and hauling packs over a ridge down into The Mirror Lake / Sapphire Lake bowl was our next task. This wasn't without injury, as Gary fell and split his arm open. Bob is a Boy Scout leader, and is trained in emergency first aid. He did a good temporary patch job on him. We had an absolutely grueling, near-vertical decent down into the Mirror Lake bowl. My big toe was on fire from the accident from day one - the pain was unbearable. One note, we had completed this whole trek with fully loaded packs, including during our ascent of Thompson Peak.
I was the last to arrive at Mirror Lake. I had been there 3 times, but it was always frozen. This time I took my clothes off, and jumped in. I laid on a warm granite rock for about a half hour, inspected my demolished big toe, ate what ever we had left, and got ready for another insane descent down to Sapphire Lake. I hadn't mentioned Zack, he's Gary's nephew, who pretty much went along with our program. He was grateful to be along for the experience. As we picked our way down to what we hoped was a trail along Sapphire Lake, we realized that there is no such thing as a trail. Back when I was kid in '75 we used a trail. In '84 Sapphire Lake was frozen, so we crossed on ice. Now Zack was 21 in 2001, young, strong and tough. We made him lead through thick brush for over 1 mile along the lake. I could hear branches cracking and snapping up ahead. I think I had the easiest time through this bushwhacking session, as I'm the smallest and I just followed the holes through the thick brush forest.
We had made it to the South end of Sapphire Lake, exhausted, considering we had woken up on top of Thompson Peak about 12 hours ago. Bob and Zack took this time to do a more comprehensive bandage on Gary's wound. We set up camp where we would rest for day 4, a 14.5 mile death trek though the valley of Stuart Fork, back to Zack's car. We had calculated that the entire trek would take us over 35 insanely tough going miles with full backpacks the whole journey.
On our way down, we pass one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, Emerald Lake. I've camped here many times, but on this journey we just stopped for some photos and a snack. The trek down Stuart Fork has many special locations. We stopped to view the river that ran next to trail some of the way down. There's Morris Meadows, a lush flat green alpine meadow, gorgeous. High jagged mountains on both sides of the valley. But after awhile one can only think of making it back to the car.
Our last destination, Stuart Fork, is a small resort where guests come to unwind, and listen to nature. It's an endless march, and my feet and legs are demolished. Willpower and the thought of seeing Deb is all that I have left to keep my legs working. As always, I'm the slowest and last to arrive at the car, oh what a car, a VW bug without a back seat. Bob and I had to ride next to the hot engine searching for some kind of comfort...for 100 miles. My Subaru is waiting for us near the OR border.