Sawtooth Lake
Approaching the mountains on Iron Creek road
Sawtooth Lake might be my favorite hike. It's in my home mountains - the Sawtooths. It has pretty scenery along the way and ends with a fantastic post card view of the north face of Mt. Regan across Sawtooth Lake. It's ten miles round trip with 1800 feet of elevation gain on a nice trail, which makes it a good workout but not a killer hike. I can do it in a day from Boise so it's my go-to hike when I want to go to the Sawtooths but aren't sure what to do. I must have done it over twenty times, more than any other hike.
This year I had done some hikes in the Bosie foothills and around Bogus Basin, but hadn't gotten to the real mountains. With Covid 19 restrictions Sandy and I weren't taking any trips this year. There was no spring trip to canyon country and our big trip to Norway planned for this summer was postponed till next year. I was definitely overdue. I also wanted to test my knee, which has been giving me more trouble during my daily walks with Abby. So what should I do? That's easy. Hike to Sawtooth Lake.
Alpine Peak and the mountains around Sawtooth Lake
To do the trip in a day requires an early start so when I happened to wake up at 4:30 one morning (ok - it was really a middle of the night bathroom trip) I decided to seize the day. I packed quickly and was pulling out of my driveway at 5am. The forecast was for clear skies (good) but high temperatures (not so good) - high eighties even in Stanley. That made an early start critical. Yes, it stays light till late so I could have left mid-morning, but doing lots of elevation gain in the hot afternoon sun would not be fun.
The drive up was easy. There were no other crazy people out on the road that early besides me. I did see a deer along the road near Grandjean, which is common, and an elk crossing the road near Banner Summit, which is more unusual. Later I saw several elk along the Iron Creek road just before I reached the trailhead. I guess if I was a hunter I would have been all excited. Still, they're big, impressive animals and it was cool to get a good look at them.
Much closer - on the final climb up to the lake
Since it was a Thursday I wasn't expecting to see many people, so I was surprised when I got to the trailhead parking lot and found that it was almost full. There were at least fifteen cars and only three empty spots left. I pulled into one and by the time I had grabbed my pack and signed in at the trailhead, the other two had been taken as well. There were even cars parked a hundred yards or so down the road in the overflow area. They most likely belonged to backpackers who had gone in the day before and stayed overnight. One of the big advantages of hiking in the Sawtooth Wilderness is that I usually don't encounter many people in the backcountry, but it certainly looked like this would be a busy day on the trail.
My car said the temperature was only forty eight degrees at 8am when I started hiking, but it was sunny with no wind. All I added from my pack was a long sleeve shirt. Even that only lasted ten minutes as I warmed up quickly once I was moving.
Outlet stream below Sawtooth Lake
The hike up was familiar but still wonderful - pleasant temperature, clear skies, beautiful scenery. Rather than exploration, it was more spending time with an old friend. As I was going up the hill to Alpine Lake I did have one unpleasant intrusion. Two backpackers were coming down the trail so I had stepped off a few feet to let them pass. As they went by, my phone started to ring. The look they gave me clearly said "Dude, why are you getting a phone call in the mountains?" I checked my phone and it was an unknown number. "I'm getting a spam call in the middle of the wilderness. That sucks!!!" They both laughed. It's sad but in the twenty first century there's nowhere you can go to escape the telemarketers.
As I had expected, there were more hikers than usual for a weekday. I found the demographics to be interesting. The hikers coming down, backpackers who had stayed overnight at Sawtooth Lake, were young people in their twenties or thirties. The day hikers going up, on the other hand, all looked to be in their sixties. Clearly old bones prefer a comfortable bed to the hard ground. On the way down in the afternoon I passed a lot of hikers who were coming up and the situation was reversed. They were all much younger. I guess the old hands know to get an early start on a hot day.
Covid 19 has definitely had an effect on trail etiquette. No one had a mask on all the time but maybe twenty percent of the hikers I saw wore something around their neck. When they passed someone on the trail they would pull it over their mouth and nose. People who didn't have face coverings (including me) would step well off the trail to let other hikers pass. Everyone was definitely practicing social distancing.
Penstemmon blooming in a meadow below Sawtooth Lake
I was carrying a few extra pounds thanks to the covid quarantine, so I took my time going uphill. Eventually I made it to the Alpine Lake overlook where I stopped for a while to admire the view. Then I just had to do the home stretch to Sawtooth Lake. I found a comfortable rock to sit on at my usual viewpoint. Although there were quite a few people on the trail I had the lake to myself for most of the time.
Another party did show up eventually but was only there for a short time. One lady was throwing a stick in the lake for her two dogs to swim out and fetch. The dogs were loving it. It made me feel a little guilty for not bringing Abby along, but only a little. According to Forest Service rules, dogs are supposed to be on leash from July 1 to Labor Day in the Sawtooth Wilderness. I didn't want to mess with a leash and neither would Abby. Maybe I was too cautious though because over the whole day I probably saw fifteen dogs on the trail and only three of them were on a leash. The rest of them ran free, although most of them were well behaved, staying close to their people. Abby has a tendency to roam far and wide when she is in the mountains. Sometimes when I am hiking with her I feel like we should just set a time to meet at the car and then go our separate ways. Ok she's not quite that bad but she does roam pretty far from me while we are hiking, especially if squirrels are involved.
Sawtooth Lake and Mt. Regan
Abby was not happy when I left without her though. She'll be really mad at me when she reads this post.
Meanwhile I was still at Sawtooth Lake, enjoying the familiar view (by myself) of Mt. Regan. I did notice one difference though. There was always a small permanent snow field on the north face. Many years ago I climbed Mt. Regan with my old climbing partner Brian. We had to carry ice axes all the way to Sawtooth Lake so we could safely ascend the snowfield. I remember another time that I climbed nearby Alpine Peak. From across the lake I watched someone climb to the top of the snowfield on Mt. Regan, carrying skis to do some late summer skiing. In all my trips to Sawtooth Lake the snowfield has always been there. Not today though. The snow field was completely gone. It was especially surprising since this spring had been cooler and wetter than usual. I'm not an expert on the microclimate around Sawtooth Lake. Perhaps that caused more not less snow melt than usual, but it seems unlikely. I suspect it's just another case of glacier/snowfield retreat due to global warming.
Late July 2012 - note the snowfield in the center of the face
I've been hiking and climbing all over the world for many decades. I have seen this at Mt. Ranier, where the glaciers don't come down nearly as close to the road as they did when I went there in the 1970's. Or in the Alps and Himalayas and Andes when I compared my view of the mountains to old photos. I've seen the evidence for global warming with my own eyes. People argue about consistency of temperature measurements and heat islands and cherry picking data, but I think there is probably no better integrator of weather to get climate than glaciers. And they are retreating almost everywhere on earth.
Eventually it was time to head back. I was slow on the hike down too. In my old age I have to be careful with my knee. And it was getting warm too. When I reached the car it said the temperature was eighty six. That's hot for being up so high - even the trailhead is over 6700 feet. Fortunately I didn't overheat coming down. There was a nice breeze and the walking was all down hill. I had even planned ahead and had a cooler with cold Diet Cokes waiting in the car. I was glad that I had gotten an early start though.
Hikers crossing a boulder field - pika heaven
Usually after a hike like this I would check out tshirts at Redfish Lake Lodge and the shops in Stanley, then have pizza at Papa Brunee's before heading home. But because of covid there was no tshirt shopping. I thought hard about stopping for pizza. It really sounded good, but I decided against that too. Instead I went straight home and was back in time for Happy Hour. Since I had to skip Papa Brunee's, Sandy suggested pizza for dinner so I didn't miss out after all. It was even better since she made bruschetta with home made bread - it was fantastic.
Although I have done the Sawtooth Lake hike more times than I can remember, it was still a great day.
