Last week we finally broke out the NOBO and headed over to the Teanaway Forest, one of the closest places to home where campgrounds were now open after COVID related closures followed by a 23-day manhunt for a murderer who was holed up in the area. Turns out I was turkey hunting on a day when the guy who killed another turkey hunter was on the loose and Catherine and I were foraging another day, they just hadn’t announced it and started the closure yet,.
We left on Tuesday late morning and arrived at 29 Pines Campground around noon, got one of our preferred spots along the river, got set up and then went to hang out on the river since it was too blazing hot to go out for a hike that afternoon. Lira and I did some fishing and we enjoyed the little “beach” close to our campground. After things cooled a bit we tried a hike, more of a walk, but only did a few miles since the heat was still a bit much.
Wednesday morning we got up early, had breakfast and headed up to the Esmerelda Trailhead at the end of the Forest Service road. Only a few cars in the lot ay 5:30 and we figured most of them were backpackers so we geared up and hit the trail to Esmerelda Basin heading up to Lake Ann and Fortune Creek Pass. This is one of the more spectacular hikes the whole way up since you have peaks on each side of you. Lots of water crossings, some of them a bit tricky and Catherine got wet once on the way up. We hit snow on the Lake Ann trail and tried to find the lake but kept losing the trail in the snowfields. Lira had a blast running around full speed, jumping over fallen logs and rolling in the snow. We tried for probably 45 minutes to find the lake but never did so we backtracked and headed to the pass. There we climbed up the knob to the south and took in the 360 degree views. We didn’t run into too many people on the way down, maybe eight or so and it was pretty easy to get off the trail and out of the way. We were tired though after 9 miles and 2100′ of climbing so we both got a bit wet on the water crossings on the way down.
Back at camp we had chips and salsa on the beach and hung out, played some uke, read and finally had dinner. The camper batteries were giving us fits so I’d have to plug in the truck and charge them back up a few times a day which had never happened before to us. The campground was significantly fuller and we had some new neighbors, turned out it was our friend Tassin and her sister, what are the odds???
Thursday morning we again got an early start and went to the same trailhead this time taking the right fork and heading to Long’s Pass. This was another really nice hike and Lira had fun chasing squirrels around. The last climb up to the top of the pass opened up to amazing views of Mt. Stewart which was only a few miles away from that point. We had only seen one person on the hike up and had the top to ourselves but on the way down started running into more people once we connected to the main trail that goes to Lake Ingalls. Finally near the junction to the Esmerelda Basin trail it got crowded. Large groups blocking the trail, people trying to get around them, etc… We hung back and Catherine did some foraging while we waited for the crowds to thin. We got back to a totally full parking lot. On the drive back to camp we saw two bucks, one a really nice one and a grouse, the only critters we saw on the trip were on the road and I glassed a LOT of country from up high on both days. We arrived back to a totally full campground so it was a good day to leave.