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.

Reservation's In

Yes, it's been awhile.  Partially due to work busyness, partly laziness, partly life getting in the way.

Needless to say, today's March 15th, the first day for reservations for Wonderland Trail.  I faxed mine in today for a loop trip on the north side of the mountain.  My requested itinerary would be:

Aug 30 - Mystic Camp
Aug 31 - Carbon River
Sep 1 - James Camp
Sep 2 - Berkeley Park

Given that this is over the labor day weekend, we'll see if I can secure this itinerary.  I told them that anytime during the week would be good.

I put in the request for 3 people, so now just finding some traveling companions.  Corinne & Alex, hint hint.

Wildflowers

Trail Ascending to Sunrise

Apologies, this post was lost.  It is one of the last posts about my third leg of the trip, from White River Campground to Sunrise.  It should follow "Views of the Mountain".  

As we climbed out of the trees, suddenly we were hiking through fields of flowers.  At first, there were only a select few flowers alongside the trail, then larger patches, followed by small meadows between the trees.  Finally, we were walking through fields of flowers, of many different varieties.  All busily being pollinated by bees, flies and other small insects. 

Although I am no expert in flowers, I did find a handout from the Park Service that did a very good job of identifying the flowers of Sunrise.  The pamphlet "Subalpine Wildflowers" contains many color pictures about many more flowers than we saw that day.

As far as I can tell, though, the brochure is not available online.  As of this writing, though, it is still available at the park. 

Indian Paintbrush

Subalpine Daisy

Broadleaf Arnica?

Views of the Mountain

Many people hike this trail in the opposite direction that we did, however, I wish to provide one reason for hiking it counterclockwise.  As you pass the falls, the forest becomes thinner, and you begin to get hints of the mountain. 

First you see much larger expanses of sky with slight hints of something near.  Then you reach a switchback and the mountain in all it's glory is out.  It's not instantaneous, but it builds as you walk up the trail.  One step at a time, the mountain is revealing it's beauty, as if it's too overwhelming to see all at once. 

As you can see, it was a sunny day with only a hint of clouds in the sky.  A perfect day to hike up a mountain.