Forum Index > Trip Reports > Spectacle Lake edited for the gentle reader
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Henchbot
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PostMon Sep 15, 2008 11:30 am 
I musta passed everybody on the planet headed up to Pete, but this is the trail you could push a wheelchair up too so its no big feat. At the junction I ran into Rick again, from the previous trip so that was an instant 20 minute delay just catching up with him. He told me Id be lucky to get to the lake by dark, then I realized my camera wasnt with me, then I realized I didnt have a lighter....the trip was starting to go South fast! One look at Pete lake and I was more irritable than before....thats a dumb lake. I dont like it at all and I refused to stay there. I thought about beating feet for Mineral Ridge but I decided to roll the dice and hammer up the mountain towards 3 Queens. Ive never been more bummed in my life, a legendary lake in my sights and no camera. Killer dinner but no matches. Awesome ex but no gf. I kept going because Im Irish; that's it. I did NOT wanna hike in the dark so I gear jammed up the mountain switchbacks, just about killing myself int he process. I passed a guy at the waterfall with a Euro accent and found out he was headed the same place so i said so long and asked to borrow a match topside. Finally got to the lake with plenty of light to spare but no energy....I dropped halfway into the basin and stopped to look, I musta sat there 20 minutes, it was truly majestic! I was awestruck by the place, Spectacle Lake. Soon I caught an irritating whiff of soap/clean clothes..then I heard a tentative bearbell, then Euroboy showed up, surprised to see me so we toiled together down towards the water. Once there we split ways to find the best site to camp, I had been earlier tipped off by an old salt coming down the mt that I should bang a left at the lake and circle into the spit where the best sites were. I shared this with Euroboy but he chose to explore the East end of the first lake and eventually settle there. I found a great site ....well, I settled for what I thought was a great site until later at dusk when I found an even better site and moved my gear there. Uber tent was pleased to be once again in my loving employ. (i love that damn tent!) Once relocated I spent the evening pumping water, which always reminds me of hippies who pump milk in public and watched the glamorous 3 Queens dance in the fading light. What a sight to behold, that mountain is captivating. I didn't realize....or I forgot the full moon is coming so I snapped some dusk shots of the moonrise and watched an Owl hunt for 20 minutes. That's the only bird of prey I saw the whole trip. (I did see a nice bull elk on the other ridge the next morning). Oh yeah I forgot to mention I WAS ELATED to find my camera at camp, scuttled down in the bowels of the bag, and with it a lighter, a green lighter. I was in luck mostly, the only thing missing now was my ex....and if she had been in the bottom of the bag with everything else gone awry...well this would be a prison journal. The night was spent uneventfully, except for the two guys that came in late and were fairly loud, nothing much else happened. I heard owls throughout the night and that was nice but I never did hear the dawn chorus or the "bird sounds" I had read about in a previous report.....one of the big reasons I went up there. The best dawn chorus Ive heard all year is at Little Kachess when I spent all of June kayak camping since everything was still snowbound. Havent heard anyhting since that compares. I spent the morning easily, up before dawn and watching everything, again fascinated by this place. The entire camp on the spit had bailed, leaving the lake to myself. Euroboy and another latecomer also had left, I nejoyed the utter solitude. Around 11am I was packed up and off the spit, I spent time on the dougans above the lake and enjoyed the sun before fastracking down. Along the way I met Jim who had started from Stevens Pass the night before and was aiming for Snoqual that evening, I couldnt believe it; He said he passed out for two hours on the trail at Escondido and that was it. Im impressed. Further down the line I ran into Rick again who told me about a problem bear down at Pete overnight. We chuckled about bearbags and parted ways.......always a pleasure to see Rick Pringle. Once arriving at Pete I was tired, the night before offered little sleep of value so I was looking forward to the truck, and a burger in Roslyn. Right in the trail at Pete I saw 2 guys working on an animal.....it looked like a medium german shepherd on its side, I figured it was injured with a thorny paw or something.....(check ninja for more, be warned) The rest of the way down I spent dreaming of chesseburgers and cold beer. I met 3 girls on horseback and then three more guys in a pack train heading out for a week. Pete Lake trail is as boring as it gets. Spectacle is incredible, I recomend not taking the Pete trail, lots of idiots about the place, next time I will buck up and eat the extra 5 miles on the PCT. full unedited story/opinion and pics at ninja....I will get a flickr account this week so i can post the pics here as well. Lots of great shots of the sunrise on blog! Check it out.

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touron
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PostMon Sep 15, 2008 12:01 pm 
D. Baggins wrote:
One look at Pete lake and I was more irritable than before....thats a dumb lake. I dont like it at all and I refused to stay there.
lol.gif Pete Lake doesn't get the best press for some reason. So what was the stream crossing like on the way to Spectacle?

Touron is a nougat of Arabic origin made with almonds and honey or sugar, without which it would just not be Christmas in Spain.
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Henchbot
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PostMon Sep 15, 2008 12:41 pm 
Pete Lake is....annoying. She's too easy and she wont kiss you in the morning. Its like a human pack train getting in and out of there. I got stuck in a squad of 8 on the way down and I ended up pulling to the side and waiting for 20 minutes to give em distance. The primitive crossing to Spec is cold cold cold but simple. Thats where the trail actually becomes something really. Spectacle is going to be a great fall trip, once summer is over! I meant to check out the bridge crossing but I never did.

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