I think I did both, but not without some battle scars to prove it.To start off, the first mile of the hike is even or downhill, and scattered with all kinds of lovely flowers. (I should note that the road was better graded and I was actually able to drive to the trail head in my Honda Fit without worrying it might bottom out from the low clearance). Truly, I loved this first mile as there are so many different flowers. Even though I had hiked here a few weeks before, the colors had developed more and the greenery is a great contrast to yellows, purples, and whites from the flowers. Gorgeous! Pictures are worth a thousand words, yet they still can't capture it all.
Then, you see the ominous Wilderness Boundary sign and here comes the granite valley and downhill climb to the lake. Last time, I veered to far to the right and didn't make it to the lake. So I was quite determined to make sure I kept to the left and found the lake. After all it was only .7 miles down....
Trekking down the granite, I started off without following the rock cairns closely. After a few hundred feet, it was a little steep but we kept going. We saw a cairn a bit below us, and carefully started descending to it. As I was easing my way down, with one hand on each side of me against the rocks, I suddenly lost my footing. The rock that I had put weight on slid out from below me and before I knew it, I was on my back with my head first, grabbing on to a branch of manzanita to stop my fall. While the manzanita bushes softened my fall, they also left me with several bloody gashes on my lower left leg, back of my left thigh, calf of my right leg, and scrapes on my elbow. All in all, I only slid about 10 feet or so, but it was enough to leave me breathless and a bit light-headed. Justin came down to me and we paused for a second before getting to the path we saw below. But as I was walking, I realized my shoelace had snapped somehow. Luckily they were pretty long so I was still able to tie it and keep going. After some water and cleaning off the cut, we kept heading down. (We might have went back up, but couldn't!) At this point, we caught sight of more cairns and were able to follow them safely down. Justin helped me so much during all this!
Waterhouse Lake sneaks up on you... once the granite starts leveling out, the stream leads you to it, but you don't see it until you are right up on it. It had several granite slabs that were smooth enough for resting on after out short but strenuous hike. There was a lone duck splashing around in the water that kept us entertained while we rested and ate lunch. We hung out for an hour and a half, but left around 1:30 pm because I might have been a little worried about getting my leg cleaned, and the family who was trying to fish had a few boys with them and we could hear them across the lake. It was a Saturday, so I shouldn't complain of course, but I still like my peace and quiet.
We trekked back to the top in about 45 minutes, and it was much easier than going down because of our rough start. Then back to the trail head through alpine terrain and summer meadows again! It was a good day though- love being out in God's creation with my husband.
Thanks for the memories. I first hiked to Waterhouse Lake in 1975 or '76 with my Boy Scout troop. Although it was July snow blocked the road about 5 miles from the trailhead and we didn't get in until 10:00pm or so. The next couple days were lots of fun though!
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