Member Newsletter - Fall 2005

Feature Photo:  Miner's Shack by Oshow

- Win $50: the member that has the largest increase in  their point total from November 1, 2005 to February 1, 2006 will win $50 cash.  Just follow the rules for posts in the User Agreement and you can win. 
- new Gold Members:  Oshow, BirdShooter
- new Silver Members: The Ox, Ferret, Pixie, Mackie
- most activity this quarter:  Oshow, Ferret
- since the inaugural Spring 2005 newsletter, membership increased from 100 to 340
- the number of trails increased from 75 to 167.  Thanks to everyone who has helped your hikes grow and to reach an impressive 186,000 rank with Alexa.com!
- Coming Soon:  Add your canoe and kayak trips at your hikes.

Hike Summary:  After our rainy July Fourth hike we were happy to have a bright & sunny day for our hike at Dupont.

We love the versatility of the trails at Dupont & have taken hikes here for over a year now. We enjoy planning our route to include spots we are interested in seeing again & again. There are innumerable possibilities for hikes. We've yet to tire of this beautiful State Park.

We started out on Fawn Lake Loop & followed it to Airstrip Trail. There was a lot of haze so the normally grand view of the mountains from the airstrips end was almost totally obliterated. We also wondered why the sunflower field to the right of the strip wasn't replanted. We enjoyed it so much last year.

We continued on Airstrip Trail to the terminus & then picked up Barn Trail & hiked it to Corn Mill Shoal’s Road. Since we knew tropical storm Cindy had upped the water levels ... click the photo above for the rest of this hike summary.

Hike Summary:  One of the better day hikes I've done.  Unfortunately, a day hike was all I was able to do on my way from Alaska to Louisiana in just under two weeks.

The Glacier Gorge and Emerald Lake trails are heavily used, but the Lake Haiyaha trail connecting the two is not. All trails are well marked.

Moderate ascent up the Glacier Gorge trail with Alberta Falls halfway up. Good sightlines and decent sized falls. The trail will split into 3 and you'll need to take the right-most fork toward Lake Haiyaha.

The trail will fork again and the spur to the lake is the lefthand one. You'll have to scramble over some house sized boulders to get to the lake, but it is well worth it! The lake was formed by a glacier and that's also where all the boulders came from. The lake is still, isolated, and cold.

Go back to the beginning of the spur and go toward Dream, Bear, and Nymph lakes. Once at the Bear Lake trailhead, follow the road back up to the Glacier Gorge trailhead.