Trip Advice - Window Peak Lake
Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 1:49 pm
First the basics:
Level of experience - Lots, at Level 3, and actually fairly comfortable with all trail/cross-country, though must confess to not liking - at all - having to clamber over big talus blocks for long distances...
Terrain - Class 2 okay, with that caveat about us not liking talus much
Main interest - all of it except fishing (except for fishing for photos/movies of fish)
Having read great trip reports/posts covering so much more than just the Window Peak Lake area (the main lake under Window Peak and its little buddy just downstream), I'm almost embarrassed to ask for this specific information about what may be enough of a no-brainer that it's not so spelled out. (I see "Cross Country" and "Zolton" being very familiar, and "Cross Country" having gone there from the Woods crossing numerous times.)
Is it a safe assumption that to hike up to Window Peak Lake from the JMT heading north from the Woods crossing, we'll get past the two outlet streams from Window Peak Lake heading down to Woods (late season, so not sure what's there - have passed that way twice over the years, but, uh, I don't remember the specifics that much), and then we'll head up off the trail following the direction of that northmost creek?
Should we try to stay close to the water (creek from Window Peak Lake), or will we be away from it and just keeping tabs on it so as not to track too far from it?
Any less-than-obvious routes/tricks to heading up there? Anything misleading to avoid?
I like the advice from "Cross Country" for the upper Paradise swim and water slide. Not sure we'd do that! But we have found some nice "brain spritzer" pockets to be in the rushing water and enjoy it rushing onto our noggins.
I enjoyed the TR for the recent July trip by Zolton, and I've got to think our weather conditions will be bit different. We have info from last year from other posts (the fire south of Cedar Grove had us move our trip north to the Silver Pass area), and getting up to Window Peak Lake from the JMT sounds doable for our level. I have lots of words written and photos ready, but am still a bit behind putting our TR here for Kibbie Lake/Flora Lake and up Bartlett to Little Bear Lake, which included plenty of rough and tumble cross country in July. Nice early trip and I'm hoping to post something useful.
Thanks for any info!
Level of experience - Lots, at Level 3, and actually fairly comfortable with all trail/cross-country, though must confess to not liking - at all - having to clamber over big talus blocks for long distances...
Terrain - Class 2 okay, with that caveat about us not liking talus much
Main interest - all of it except fishing (except for fishing for photos/movies of fish)
Having read great trip reports/posts covering so much more than just the Window Peak Lake area (the main lake under Window Peak and its little buddy just downstream), I'm almost embarrassed to ask for this specific information about what may be enough of a no-brainer that it's not so spelled out. (I see "Cross Country" and "Zolton" being very familiar, and "Cross Country" having gone there from the Woods crossing numerous times.)
Is it a safe assumption that to hike up to Window Peak Lake from the JMT heading north from the Woods crossing, we'll get past the two outlet streams from Window Peak Lake heading down to Woods (late season, so not sure what's there - have passed that way twice over the years, but, uh, I don't remember the specifics that much), and then we'll head up off the trail following the direction of that northmost creek?
Should we try to stay close to the water (creek from Window Peak Lake), or will we be away from it and just keeping tabs on it so as not to track too far from it?
Any less-than-obvious routes/tricks to heading up there? Anything misleading to avoid?
I like the advice from "Cross Country" for the upper Paradise swim and water slide. Not sure we'd do that! But we have found some nice "brain spritzer" pockets to be in the rushing water and enjoy it rushing onto our noggins.
I enjoyed the TR for the recent July trip by Zolton, and I've got to think our weather conditions will be bit different. We have info from last year from other posts (the fire south of Cedar Grove had us move our trip north to the Silver Pass area), and getting up to Window Peak Lake from the JMT sounds doable for our level. I have lots of words written and photos ready, but am still a bit behind putting our TR here for Kibbie Lake/Flora Lake and up Bartlett to Little Bear Lake, which included plenty of rough and tumble cross country in July. Nice early trip and I'm hoping to post something useful.
Thanks for any info!