The celebration actually started on Saturday. Jeff, Cecelia and I camped at Crystal Lake, cooked hot dogs, drank alcoholic beverages, enjoyed a camp fire, and listened to sounds of the wilderness, including mountain lion calls, and a couple yelling angry things at each other half the night.
Nate joined us in the morning, and we all started hiking from the lake parking. Our route took us to the Lost Ridge Trail to Deer Flat to Big Cienega. I prefer this route over the Windy Gap trail, because it's less busy and there are less rocks all over the tread. Also, I've hiked Windy Gap enough to last a lifetime. Why do it again when good alternatives exist?
Big Cienega still had flowing water, so we filled a few bottles en route to the Islip Ridge trail. We passed a group taking pictures of themselves at a vista point. The sun warmed the path a bit, but the weather remained mild as we climbed higher and higher. Tall trees provided shaded rest stops. The upper portion of the ridge was very pleasant and offered a nice trail through rock outcroppings.
- Cecelia on Islip Ridge.
- Celebration with champagne on Mt. Islip.
When we reached the summit of Islip, there was another group taking a break in the shade. We set up our stuff in the ruins of the cabin, where there was shade against the walls.
Jeff cooked grilled cheese sandwiches. Nate brought snails for his magic ingredient. I brought cookies for mine. Jeff added some crunch with a box of Cheez-Its. Cecelia prepared peppers for the mix. Along with pesto and dried tomatoes, I think we've nearly perfected the wilderness grilled cheese experience.
After our gourmet meal and celebratory champagne, we stuck to the ridge route all the way down to the lake. The lower half of the trail has suffered minor burn damage from the Bobcat Fire.
- Burned tree fall down.
- Burned Sutter walls.
Descending to the lake took longer than Cecelia had hoped it would. After the first, good view of the water, it's still another couple miles to the south bank. The trail here is also brushy and rocky. It needs much restoration and maintenance. But at the end of it all is the beautiful lake, nice and full of water these days. Apparently it's also full of trout now, having been restocked recently. But the unlucky fishermen were not catching anything that afternoon.
- Switchbacking down to Crystal Lake.
- Crossing along the east shore.
We made it back to the cars after a pretty full Crystal Lake adventure. I cracked open a cold beer from the cooler. Nate had taken off, eager to get home. Jeff was filtering water, but dreaming of an ice cream shake. I wonder if he found a good one down in the city.
