Third time to Greendrop Lake, third time it rained on me :-) At least today it was only a sprinkle, with the main thunderstorm passing us by. Lindeman Lake looked stunning in bright sunshine, which meant it was baking hot out on the boulder fields. We were glad of the cloud cover on the return leg. Speaking of boulders, I was reminded again at how many boulder fields you cross on this hike – we came to the conclusion that beyond Lindeman Lake, the hike should be regarded as one giant boulder field with a bit of forest in between!
This was the third of my ten-year anniversary hikes – it was the second hike I organized through Wanderung back in May 2005, and on that occasion it rained most of the way. (It rained quite a bit on my return in July 2012 too…)
The trail is in good condition and the water level is low so there are no issues at any of the creek crossings. As always, crossing Post Creek in the boulder fields requires good balance, and may be a bit tricky for less experienced hikers.
Lots of trillium blooming, a few fairyslipper orchids, hooker’s fairybells, wild ginger and streambank spring beauty. To my surprise, Queen’s cup leaves are already covering the forest floor in places, and it won’t be too long before they flower – I imagine that this time next month we’ll be seeing a lovely display. Devil’s Club is in leaf, the alder and cottonwood trees are at their aromatic peak.
Varied thrushes aplenty, a red-headed sapsucker or two, and I heard (but never saw) a couple of rufous hummingbirds. Lindeman Lake had a lone loon floating over on the far side.
One thing to note about recording a GPS track – I had my GPS (Garmin 62s with fresh batteries) lose track in 2 locations, once where it lost satellites completely and the other when it got our position off by a huge amount. I blame this on the steep valley we were in and possibly the heavy cloud cover. And yet, my phone never lost a connection, and neither did anyone else’s (nor some one other, older, Garmin GPS).
Distance: 13 km
Elevation gain: 400 m
Photos on Flickr
Being. Outdoors. 