Ice Lake Hike 7/6/13-7/8/13

http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org/wiki/Ice_Lake_Hike
  
We wanted to take advantage of a 3 day weekend and do some hiking in Eastern Oregon this past weekend.  We left Portland at about 530pm on Friday the 5th and headed towards Wallowa Lake TH.
Just past the Deschutes River State Recreation Area, there are some wind farms (on both sides of the Columbia).  It pretty cool to see all of the windmills going at once.

 
We stopped for about 30 minutes in Pendleton for a bathroom break, some leg stretching and refreshments and got back on the road. 

Diego is our little travel "Gnome"

Driving on HWY 82, at one point (that seemd like it all happened in slow motion) a moth hoovered in front of the windshield and then a small bat, that was probably getting dinner, smacked into the window.  Maybe it was a ginormous bug...at least I can tell myself that, so I dont feel bad for hitting a bat.

We arrived at the trailhead around 1130 pm, set-up the back of the Outback for a good nights sleepWho knew Outbacks came complete with a full-sized bed in the back) and woke-up the next morning all ready to get started on the hardest hike that we have done yet. 

our idea of car camping

We decided to take advantage of the State Park down the road and shower before starting out.  We were on the trail at 10am.  Somehow, 10 am always seems to be the time we get started on our hikes.  It is not intentional, but seems to be the way.

Here is our beginning of the hike shot...

Just the two of us

And so it begins

Chers ready to kick some trail in the hiney

Jen

The trail starts out with a steady rise in elevation.  It is used by hikers and horses, so there is a lot of dodging horse poop for the first 2.5 miles, until you cross the river onto the Ice Lake trail.  The trail runs in and out of the shade, which is nice, considering how hot it gets over there. There were about 3-4 little streams that run across this section of the trail.  There were a few times that we had to get over and let some people on horses pass.

You can see the river most of the way. 

At one of the larger streams, we came across a 4 pt buck that was drinking.  He looked at us for a few minutes, turned and went down the trail.  We slowly went around the corner to see if we could spot him again, but he must have went into the forest. 

We interrupted this buck drinking from a stream

At about 2.6 miles, and probably 800' EG, you come to the Wallowa river crossing.  There is a nice resting place, other than the fact that it smell like horse poo, on the right about 100' before the bridge.  The log pile that people were using to cross the river, when the old bridge washed out, is still there. 

We sat for about 20' and had some lunch.  Little did we know, as we were enjoying the view, of the grueling hike that laid ahead.

Here is the rest stop , old log crossing and you can barely make out Adam creek waterfall(in the middle of the pic near the dead tree)

Little did we know, at the time, that we were headed up to the red dot.  The downed trees have been the temporary river crossing, until they put in the new bridge.

Cher crossing the bridge over Wallowa river

After crossing the new bridge, the trail continues to climb.  There are 3 sets of switchbacks in the next 5 miles of trail.  The first set contains about 7.  There are about a dozen in the second set.  This set there are a lot of loose rocks to navigate around.  There are a few views of waterfalls along Adam creek.
After the second set, the trail is pretty straight.  There is a nice view of the upper Adam creek waterfall that drains from Ice lake.  The trail passes through a meadow and there are a lot of views of the Hurwal divide and the other peaks in the area.  This is where someone pointed out to us that the waterfall was where we were headed to. Comparing its elevation to the other ridges in the area that we had been  looking at when were down lower and wondering how high we were going to get, really put things into perspective.  We were already feeling beat and still had the last set of switch backs to go.

The waterfall is getting closer

Adam Creek

Adam Creek Falls

There were about 13 switchbacks in the final set.  There were also about 6 blowdowns to navigate around.  Of course, the blowdowns appear after your totally pooped and starting to wonder if you can actually make it to your destination. A couple of the blowdowns I had to get on my hands and knee to crawl under and the others were fairly easy to climb over.  The last set of switchbacks were long ones. 

Just when we thought they were never going to end, they did :)  We came to the top of the trail and spotted the lake.  I referenced the printout I had from the field guide to see where the chances of finding a camp spot would be.  We crossed Adam creek and headed toward the peninsula.

Adam Creek crossing

The creek crossing was pretty easy with the logs that people had placed there.  The creek itself was rushing and looked maybe thigh deep, so I am glad we didnt have to try to ford it.  There was a larger log that was about 10 yards down, but these smaller ones looked easier to cross.  The larger one was a nice safety feature, in-case someone falls in, they will be saved from rushing down the creek ;)

We followed the trail around the lake and came to the peninsula.  We spotted a group of people camped with about 4 tents.  We decided to pick a spot that was just before theirs mostly because we were so pooped, we didnt feel like trying to find another.  They were a quite bunch with two cute dogs that were wandering around.  I was a little worried, mostly because our little 12 pound chi/iggy mix thinks he is about 10 times larger, but he behaved himself (he was always leased, but sometimes gets leash aggressive when other dogs run up to him).  We set-up our tent, rehydrated some dinner and tried to eat.  I think we were both to exhausted to eat, but we made ourselves eat as much as we could...mostly cause we knew we needed it. 

As we were trying to eat and relax, there were some does that came down to the lake for an evening sip.

The doe's came down both evenings into our camp

 As the sun went down, the massive amount of stars came out.  We retired to the tent.  I thought about keeping the rain-fly off to enjoy the stars, but to me a rain-fly is like a security blanket...If its on, nothing can get me.  I think I would freak out if I woke up in the middle of the night and there was an animal staring at me-even if it was just a deer... 
As we dozed off, we heard some howling in the distance...I would like to think it was wolves, but it was probably coyotes. 

We woke up on Sunday to another beautiful day.  As we were eating breakfast, we noticed the group that was near us seemed to be getting ready to head out.  We decided if they left, that we would move down to that spot.  There were come nice sitting logs that we wanted to take advantage of. 
As the morning went on, we explored the peninsula.  There are a lot of camp spots around it, all with varying views of the surrounding peaks.

peak to the South

peak to the NW

By lunchtime, the group had left and we moved our camp over.  We went down to the lake to filter some water and take in the views.

Diego "helping" to filter water

pano from the watering hole

We only saw 1-2 others that hiked in through the day to camp and a few other day hikers.  We spotted about 2-3 groups that hiked along the northern side of the lake, possibly hoping to do the Matterhorn, but about halfway down, there was a snowfield covering the trail.  No one attempted to cross it.  From where we were, it looked like the trail could possibly be washed out in that section, but it could just be how the snow is covering it.

our camp cooler

The little peninsula we were on had a lot to explore

gnarly wood

This butterfly hung out for awhile

Pano from the peninsula

reflection in the ripples

you can see the trail (that heads to the Matterhorn) across the lake.  There is a snowfield blocking a section of it

We liked the new area.  We were a little spread out, but its nice to have your food area a ways away from your tent.

The dining area

relaxing by the lake

Around midnight, I heard some critter(possibly a chipmunk) doing a warning call.  About a minute later I saw a flash of light.  For a brief moment , my mind freaked out and thought someone is rummaging through our camp and I waited for a zipper to open....But I was relieved to hear a thunderclap.  There was an amazing thunder and lightning storm...followed by a good downpour.  The storm went on for about an hour.  The final thunderclap was a doozie...it shook the ground.

When we woke up in the morning, the ground was dry (the rain-fly was still wet).  There were some dark clouds flying by and a few brief drizzles, so we hurried to eat breakfast and took advantage of the moments when there was no drizzle to pack-up. 

We were on the trail out by 8am.  As head headed out, we made it down the first set of switchbacks in about half the time it took us to get up them.  When we cam to the meadow, we noticed that to the right of Adam creek, it look like a flash flood had come through and knocked a bunch of old trees down.

view of the meadow and downed trees

We continued on. The sky had cleared up and it was getting warm now.  We took advantage of the intermittent streams that crossed the trail and cooled off. 

Chers happy to almost be to the river

There were a few groups of dayhikers headed up the trail as we were headed out.  When we got to the rest spot (after crossing the Wallowa river) and group of 3 guys, who were also on their way out, stopped and rested there as well.  We were there for about 30 minutes at most, enjoyed an apple and some almond butter, looked up at the little spot that we knew we just came from and continued out. 

I thought it was interesting on the way out, when there were a few spots where we gained in elevation, how I didnt remember going down on the way in...

We got back to the car at about 1 and were on the road by 130. 
We stopped in Enterprise for a Subway, ate in the car (we had the pooch with us, so we were limited to our dining options). 

The drive home was nice.  It was great to see the landscape we missed on the way there in the dark.  I was so thankful for cruise control.  My calves were feeling the hike down we had that day, so it was nice to stretch them as needed. 

We stopped in Hood River to stretch our legs, get gas and then continued back to Portland. 
It is a great hike and beautiful country.  I look forward to our next adventure to the East.  I think the next time, I might schedule a recovery day off though ;)