I survived the hike!

Woo hoo! Royal Basin is all that I remembered and more.

I started out early from home and drove to the trailhead in the pouring rain. Since it was raining so very hard, I decided that I would get to the trailhead and wait until noon to see if it would clear up. It actually stopped raining before I got there, and it never started again. On the drive, I saw a racoon, two cats, a raven, 17 deer, and a grouse, in that order. It was an omen of what was to come.

I hiked up to Royal Lake. It is about 5 miles and 2600 feet of elevation gain from the parking lot to the lake. The trail starts out gently, small rolling hills through forest and an empire of moss. Eventually the trail conditions get rougher and the trail itself gets steeper each time it starts uphill. Luckily, the trail grade is not consistent, and you get lots of breaks on flat trail before continuing upward. Last year I could have handled more of an incline, but this is only the second hike I've done since last August, and it is the first overnighter. That's a heavy pack to throw on when you're out of shape!

The lower meadows are gorgeous. I love the wildflowers, the views of the peaks surrounding the basin, and the ice-milk blue stream that runs through it. They've put good footbridges over all of the larger creeks. It used to be more difficult to cross them. I got to the lake at noon and set up camp. Before I even had my tent up (and it takes about 5 minutes), I had a deer in camp begging for food. I had intermittent visits the whole time I was there.

After eating lunch (lasagne!), I headed up to the upper basin. The trail from the lake passes through the meadows in which the ranger station is located, past Shelter Rock, then up for a while to another huge alpine meadow. The avalanche lilies have taken over this part of the trail. I've never seen so many in one place! After crossing a stream coming down from Mt. Deception (you can see a huge waterfall off to your left at this point), you start up a trail that is pretty steep and narrow along what looks like a recent landslide. It may have happened years ago, but it has the look of a fresh one. It is all lose scree, and the footing is a little tricky - especially on the way down.

Since the weather wasn't great, the pictures were just OK. It was cold and overcast. The upper basin is at 5600 feet, so low clouds up there are at about eye-level. I hung out in the basin for a while, eating my victory snack (a Snickers bar) and watching a party of four descending the glacier next to Mt. Deception. I also saw a group of five descending Mt. Clark. I stayed in my safe little haven of the upper basin next to the big tarn that looks like an underlit opal. I watched the marmots for a while. There is an abundance of marmots up there! After I got cold, I headed back down to camp.

Once I got back to the lake, I walked the trail around the lake and took pictures. I then went back to camp and ate dinner (Chili Mac with beans!) and had a victory drink (Vodka!). I stashed my bear vault and organized camp. It was time to relax! I sat by the lake and dangled my feet over the little cliff for a while, reading my book (Holy Blood, Holy Grail) and watching some guy fishing. It was getting pretty cold at this point, so I headed into my tent with my book.

I woke up only a few times. Once, I heard someone come into my camp and stand there for about 30 seconds, then leave. I know it was a person because of the stomping footfall and the swishing of the pants with each step. Another time, I heard something kick some rocks as it walked past my tent. That one was probably a deer. I hauled the required 2-1/2 pound bear vault up for protection from deer? I woke at about 2 a.m. to find the temperature was about 35 outside, but it was about 55 in the tent. I didn't realize how much breathing and body heat could warm up a tent!

When I woke up at 6 a.m., it was about 59 degrees in the tent and it was very bright. I stuck my head out to find a crystal clear blue sky. I got up and ate breakfast (scrambled eggs and bacon!) and headed back up to the upper basin. More deer, more marmots, more flowers, no people! I got there just in time to see the first jets of the day marring the sky with contrails. As soon as one contrail dissipated, another would cross the sky. I had to be quick with the camera to get pictures that didn't have little white lines all over the background. I did get some nice pictures, though! I'll post a link when I can.

I headed back to camp. On the way, I spoke with two other hikers who mentioned a weather system that was coming in that they didn't want to get caught in. I didn't want to get caught in it either. I broke camp and headed out. It turns out that it never happened, but I needed to get home to do some work anyway.

All in all, it was an excellent weekend hike.

Since this was my first camping trip of the year, my legs took quite a pounding. It took me almost as long to get back to my car as it took me to hike in, and I was already stiffening up by the time I got out of the parking lot. I've been hobbling around this morning as though I crossed the country barefoot! But hey, I did it, and the weather was perfect, and that is all I really wanted anyway.