Heather Lake

Saturday we made it back to Heather Lake.  We were there in 2004, 7 years ago!  The kids are a bit bigger and we have a few more.  It is a 4 mile round trip with 1200 feet of elevation gain.  The trail starts off through deep dark woods, transitioning into woods with dappled shade and more undergrowth.  It ends at the lake which is on the side of Mount Pilchuck.  As soon as we were done with the produce co-op, we hit the road, leaving at 9:00 am which is a very quick get-a-way in this family!  The trail is generally easy but there are lots of rooty areas and it was pretty muddy.  Several of the children were complaining about their shoes getting muddy and Miriam turned to William and said, "Boys don't care about mud!"  His response, "Well, I do!"

1st break on our hike, a huge stump in the deep dark woods

breaking out into the different kind of forest

at the lake

We've got some photos from the last time we visited to show how big the kids have grown.

Elizabeth, 2004

Elizabeth, 2011

Jacob, Isaac and Isaac Colson, 2004

Isaac Colson, Isaac, and Jacob, 2004

the crew in 2011

Anastaya, William, Miriam, Isaac, Isaac Colson, Elizabeth

We fit around the tree a lot better!

Dode got in on the tree fun too

Once we got to the lake, we had to bush whack our way down to a gravel beach.  Mountain lakes don't generally have very good beaches for kids.  Heather Lake has a few gravel beaches scattered around the edge.  We re-visited the beach we'd been to the last time.  Apparently, not a lot of people actually go down to the shore because there is no user built trail.  As soon as we had a minute to catch our breath, the kids started their usual complaint, bugs!  The bug repellent came out and soon our lunches all had the added flavor of bug spray to season them.  Even with the repellent, the bugs were still flitting around and the kids spent a lot of their time complaining about the deer flies.  The bugs weren't even the biting kind!  I'm not sure I'm raising very good outdoorsmen! 

Miriam loved self serving with the water filter

She enjoyed it so much, she asked her grandma one for Christmas!

Someone had carried a canoe in to the lake and abandoned it.  It looked like it had wintered over in the lake and the shifting ice had not been nice to it.

These type of cracks were on both sides.

It was quite an adventure for the boys to stay afloat in it.

Isaac figured out how to sit in it to keep it from taking on water

The lake water was so clear, we could see the fish swimming around.

Clear water = cold water!

They were even able to use it to go out to a small island in the lake, barely visible in the upper right of the photo.

They dubbed the island "Dickson Island" and as they hollered out to tell us,  I'm sure everyone else on the lake knew as well.  We've got a pretty boisterous bunch and I doubt there was a spot on the lake where you couldn't hear us.

It was a beautiful day.

Miriam was pretty worn out on the way back.  The only way we could keep her motivated was to have her be in the lead.  In the lead, she was cruising.  She passed two other groups of adults and we struggled to keep up with her.  If she wasn't in the lead, she would slowly amble along dragging her feet and crying.  We kept her in the lead as much as possible!