Martha Falls Redux

Martha Falls

The trail from Louise Lake to Martha Falls was fairly uneventful.   The first leg between the lake and the Stevens Canyon Road crossing was fairly open with fairly frequent sneak peeks at the mountain.  The Trail between the road crossing (4500 ft) and the Falls was more heavily forested with little underbrush.

Unlike my first visit, I was accompanied this time by my lovely bride.  We met a man and his son trekking around the mountain and had a little chat.  He was about my age and his son was soon to graduate from college.  He had always dreamed about making the hike around the mountain and finally figured it was the right time.

Needless to say, his son was leading the way up the hill. 

The happy couple

Hidden Lake?

Between Reflection Lakes and Martha Falls, you come upon a lake hidden in between a couple of ridges.  You can't see this lake very well from the highway, and the Wonderland Trail skirts the lake.  However, just as you are descending from the intersection with the trail to Sluiskin Falls, you get a glimpse of a wonderful little alpine lake.

The lake is called Louise Lake, and there is a little side trail off the Wonderland Trail to get down to the lake.  There was a man fishing there, however, we were not sure if he had caught anything. 

The lake looked to have no stream coming out of it.  The outlet into Sunbeam Creek was fairly well hidden, flowing out of a narrow valley on the northeast part of the lake.  (Upper right corner of the first photograph.)  The lake was fed by a couple of minor creeks, barely visible through the trees. 

Faraway Rock

Labor Day Weekend - 2011

I was unloading pictures from the camera the other day and I found there were a number of pictures from Labor Day last year.  My lovely bride and I took a hike on the Wonderland Trail between Reflections Lakes and Martha Falls.  It was a gorgeous day for a hike. 

As you can see from the pictures, the sky was clear and the mountain was out.  However, there was still snow that we had to walk over. 








For 2011, the Wonderland Trail never did become snow free.  The trail along the eastern edge had snow patches that never melted.  The elevation at Reflection Lakes (48xx feet) is almost 2000 feet below the highest elevation at Panhandle Gap. 

We can only hope for better weather in 2012. 

Fourth Leg - Reflection Lakes to Martha Falls

This is the bookend to the final hike on Labor Day last year.  We started at Reflection Lakes and went down hill to Martha Falls.  As you see from the elevation profile, it then became a bit of a climb.

Total hike for the day was about 7 miles, 3.5 miles each way.

With this hike, I completed the southern part of the Wonderland Trail, from Paradise to Box Canyon.