Cutthroat Pass and Cutthroat Lake 7-20-13

Adventure Dog and I spent the weekend camping up on Highway 20.  I love this mountain highway!  It is so rugged and majestic and beautiful.  The craggy peaks' alluring wildness changes with the movement of the sun, sometimes illuminated in brightness, sometimes dark and foreboding, always completely enthralling.  Even just driving along it will take your breath away, but if you want to stretch your legs, the trails are well-marked, well-maintained and all that I saw had a decent parking lot and privy.
We stayed at Lone Fir Campground, which I've stayed at before, and early Saturday morning headed for Cutthroat Pass via the Cutthroat Lake Trail.  If you're doing this one on a warm day, going early is the key. It is a steady climb and the rocks soak up the rays of the sun and radiate them back at you.  The first cool thing we found along this trail was an old trough.  I'm not sure what cattle would eat up here.. I didn't see a lot of grasses, just brush, wildflowers, pines and larch.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were quite a few streams still burbling along from the melting snow above.  The rock were tinted pink, orange and peach, so the streams took on a rosy look also.

 As I hiked along the trail I enjoyed a view of the surrounding mountains.

 

Another important thing for this hike in the summer is plenty of water.  I brought 2 liters and there were also streams for Cedar, but between the two of us we used all the water, and ran out with just a little under 2 miles left to go on our way back to the car.

 

I'm not sure what this cairn signified, if anything, but I added a stone on the way back down.

 

And after toiling along, taking breaks every time I saw Cedar's tail start to droop, my legs starting to feel the climb and feeling some of my first and worst hiking blisters, we were at the top and among the jagged stone peaks and patches of bright white snow.

 

The Pacific Crest Trail runs across this pass, and you can see how much respect for signs the wind and snow have.  I only saw one person all the way up and that was just as we reached the top and he was heading off along the PCT with a larger pack than mine.

 

This is how Cedar celebrated getting to the top.

 

 The surrounding mountain ridges.  There was just one jagged line after another, all layered and stretching on into the horizon.

 

We ate our lunch on this flat rock and just soaked in the awesomeness of where we were.  At least I did.  Once Adventure Dog knew the sandwich was gone, he went off and stood in the snow again.

 

There is Cutthroat Lake wayyyyy down there which we hiked to on our way back down.

 

Here it is.  I was really hoping to get in and swim at this point, but the edges were deep mud and reeds.  I waded in the outlet stream instead.  This was a worthy hike!