Return to Reed Lakes

I did not get much sleep last night. But I still made it out for my hike. 

The above picture is about as a good a view as we got the whole hike.

Despite the clouds, the weather wasn't too bad to start. A light rain that was almost like a mist and even thought the sun was well hidden, the view of the valley was still impressive. So much as the weather didn't take a turn for the worse, I felt it would be a great hike.

We made it to the boulder field without any issues. Weather stayed decent enough and my out of state friends seemed to be enjoying all the scenery. The boulder field took a little longer to get through than I originally thought it would, but even with a light rain the boulders were wet and we were being safe (or at least as safe as we could be for people choosing to cross over a bunch of giant rocks in wet weather. 

As the above picture shows, the clouds started getting lower (actually we were getting higher), but the rain was still light. And it was still a beautiful sight, like Alaska was saying, "Look how awesome I am even in grey skies."

I'd say finally we got to lower Reed Lake, but it didn't feel like it took nearly as long as I first thought it would. And the weather was still decent, so we took a few pictures (none of which could truly do the blue of this lake justice) and started heading to upper Reed Lake, which I assured my friends was even more awe inspiring than this one. Heck, just looking to the waterfalls near this lake seemed to be reason enough to continue on. 

I think about halfway toward the upper lake is when I noticed the rain starting to come down a bit harder. And the temperature was noticeable colder. On the plus side, I also feel like this is the most physically demanding part of the hike as far as going uphill goes, so I didn't mind the temperature drop. I absolutely hated the rain though.

This was all we could see of upper Reed Lake. I felt absolutely gutted. I've been talking this hike up for years to anyone that'll listen and now I have some friends from out of state visiting and this is the view they got. And as if to emphasize the point (whatever the point was) the weather stayed miserable the whole way back. The light rain was now a steady drizzle that had all of soaked through before long, even with rain gear. The clouds stayed low blocking most our view on the way back as well. We also went about a quarter mile the wrong way coming back - I think mostly due to constantly looking at the trail since there wasn't much to see while looking up. 

Now that I'm home and I'm dry and I've had some time to unwind - I'm still thankful for today. I can't lie, the hike sucked. But a shitty hike with good friends is still a good day for me. I'm bummed I didn't get to show off Alaska in the way I love to imagine myself being able to do, but at the same time, even in subpar weather my friends seemed pretty impressed with most of what we could see. And, as far as I'm concerned, they now have reason to come visit again so we can try the hike in better weather.

Song of the Day