TR-Thousand Island Lake-July 15-17
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:06 am
Several years ago my friend, John DeGrazio of Yexplore, took me on my first backpacking trip to Thousand Island Lake. It was the adventure of a lifetime, and instilled in me the desire to return. John's quote was that this was his favorite camping site of any others he's experienced up to that point in his life. His expertise in backpacking/camping numbers into the hundreds, so that was quite a statement. This summer, being the expert, I was able to return with a different friend.
I thought this was going to be a similar adventure. I was right in that T.I. is still the most beautiful camping site of all. But I was wrong in how it all played out differently. The one thing I was looking forward to the most was the incredible pink to yellow to gray color changes on Banner Peak during the sunrise. That didn't happen. Banner was it's normal gray for each sunrise. This time the surprises came in different forms. I took my other friend on a day hike from T.I. to Garnet Lake, and was pleased when he said this trail easily made his top ten list. I was also surprised by the outburst of wildflowers around all the lakes, and River Trail. Especially the 14 million paintbrush we counted around Thousand Island. Another surprise was the sunsets. But the biggest surprise of all was when I saw a gentleman setting up a tripod on a giant granite slab near our campsite. I rushed over to pick his brain about photography, and met Miles Hall. We had a great discussion, and he let me know the reason for the tripod. He was shooting the night sky, and the Milky Way was going to make an appearance. So forget about the sunrise, I wanted to get up in the middle of the night to see my first Milky Way in the wild. I didn't have the equipment to take a picture, but the grandeur has been etched in my mind forever. Thank you Miles!
My last little surprising adventure came my last day there. My friend was a little tired from our Garnet hike, and didn't want to do another. So I looked around, and wondered where I could explore nearby. At the mouth of Thousand Island, there's a 218 foot promontory with a giant erratic sitting on top. I knew the views would be incredible. I saw Kuna, Koip, and Parker in the distance, bringing back more DeGrazio memories, and was pleasantly surprised when Mt. Lyle came into view. This turned out to be another adventure of a lifetime. By the way, the mosquitos were bad enough for me to wear my netting, so be prepared if you go.
I thought this was going to be a similar adventure. I was right in that T.I. is still the most beautiful camping site of all. But I was wrong in how it all played out differently. The one thing I was looking forward to the most was the incredible pink to yellow to gray color changes on Banner Peak during the sunrise. That didn't happen. Banner was it's normal gray for each sunrise. This time the surprises came in different forms. I took my other friend on a day hike from T.I. to Garnet Lake, and was pleased when he said this trail easily made his top ten list. I was also surprised by the outburst of wildflowers around all the lakes, and River Trail. Especially the 14 million paintbrush we counted around Thousand Island. Another surprise was the sunsets. But the biggest surprise of all was when I saw a gentleman setting up a tripod on a giant granite slab near our campsite. I rushed over to pick his brain about photography, and met Miles Hall. We had a great discussion, and he let me know the reason for the tripod. He was shooting the night sky, and the Milky Way was going to make an appearance. So forget about the sunrise, I wanted to get up in the middle of the night to see my first Milky Way in the wild. I didn't have the equipment to take a picture, but the grandeur has been etched in my mind forever. Thank you Miles!
My last little surprising adventure came my last day there. My friend was a little tired from our Garnet hike, and didn't want to do another. So I looked around, and wondered where I could explore nearby. At the mouth of Thousand Island, there's a 218 foot promontory with a giant erratic sitting on top. I knew the views would be incredible. I saw Kuna, Koip, and Parker in the distance, bringing back more DeGrazio memories, and was pleasantly surprised when Mt. Lyle came into view. This turned out to be another adventure of a lifetime. By the way, the mosquitos were bad enough for me to wear my netting, so be prepared if you go.