TR: Hyatt Lake Chain Lakes 6/25-27/2018 Day 1

[MountainMinstrel]

OK, thanks to some good beta from this site I made the decision to go from an out and back to Hyatt Lake to make it a loop through Chain Lakes. Here is the route I ended up with.

IMG_1215.jpg

By the time I got to Summit Ranger station to pick up the permit it was 8:00, and after the long drive out to the Bourland Meadows TH it was 10:00. So I hit the trail and off through a heavily forested area I when on a well used use trail. Along the way passed many areas of wild flowers...

DSC01647.JPG

The skeeters were enough of a nuisance (probably not a good omen) that It was a relief to finally start to break out of the forest and get my first view of West Cherry Creek drainage and Cherry Ridge beyond...

DSC01649.JPG

And then it was out on to the granite...

DSC01650.JPG

DSC01651.JPG

With the use trail now gone I loosely followed mschnaidt's GPX file down to West Cherry Creek where I found an easy crossing rock hoping...

DSC01652.JPG

DSC01653.JPG

DSC01654.JPG

Next came the work for the day...crossing Cherry Ridge...

DSC01660.JPG

It was a tough climb for this out of shape 62 year old, but the wildflowers gave me encouragement along the way...

DSC01657.JPG

DSC01661.JPG

Finally made my way up and over and after a bit of bushwacking found myself at Hyatt at about 7:00pm. I zoomed right past the well established camp site just before the lake as it was buried in deep forest and I was already getting tired of the blood suckers. instead made my way to the South west beach and found this site up on a ledge where, hopefully the skeeters would be a little less numerous. Here's the view from my camp...

DSC01662.JPG

Totally beat, I pumped water (actually use a gravity system) cooked dinner and hit the sack.

Todays stats 6.84 miles, 1226ft. gain, 1089 ft. loss, 8:37 total time.
Lesson learned...it might be better to not try to follow a GPX to closely but to instead just find you own way. I think I spent a ot of time just trying to stay on the track instead of getting to the top.

[jdabs]

Nice report MM!

I just spent part of a day at Hyatt Lake as well on July 2 as part of a 4-day trip where we also stayed at West Cherry Creek, Pingree, and Rosasco Lakes (will try to get a full trip report up in the next few days). Hyatt was beautiful as always with the water nice enough to swim and, as you described, the skeeters a reasonable annoyance, but not as bad as they were everywhere else we went (though we were only at Hyatt during the heat of the day). If we had camped at Hyatt I would have done the same area you described on the southwest. We only stayed there a few hours (during the afternoon heat), but really nice to see it again. That beach is fantastic!!! Thanks again for posting.