Day 19 Aug 19,1982<br>Well the good news was no
bears. We made our usual start anticipating the
spectacular views that awaited us. We would finally be seeing
Rae Lks., an area I had only seen in pictures before.
My wife and I had started into the area in '67 but
we turned back just short of the top of Baxter Pass.
We crossed Woods Ck. on a log bridge with a handrail
of limbs. When we went back in '93 I wondered what
happened to it in the high waters of '86. I was pleased to
see the new suspension bridge, what a difference.
Shortly after we left it started sprinkling. We climbed
on up in an on and off drizzle taking shelter under
the trees a couple of times during the heavier
showers. We passed Dollar Lk. and stopped at Arrowhead Lk.
We saw several 8 inch trout in the creek above the
lake. We seemed to be alone so we took a bath, washed
our clothes and had lunch. We had rung as much water
as we could from our laundry then it rained and
hailed. The sky is solid cloud and the thunder and
lightning played around but not quite as near as this
morning. Spent 2 1/2 hours here rewrung our clothes and
went on. We soon came upon rangers clearing downed
logs from the trail. They rolled the first section out
of a 4 footer just as we walked up so we were the
first thru it. They were on horses and soon passed us.
In a little while they were coming back with a
trophy. They had found a Bighorn Sheep skull with almost
a full curl and had it tied on the pack mule. We
then came onto Rae Lks. and looked at Fin Dome with
our own eyes. We met the ranger and asked about the
bear stories we had heard. He said he had also heard
the rumors but had no firsthand knowledge of any
problems, however, he said to hang our packs. We reached
the istmus and found our campsite just east of the
creek. There are a lot of people here but we are able to
camp somewhat alone. We took advantage of the early
stop (4PM)to fish. I kept 5 about 7 inches long for
dinner. While fishing I had someone tell me that they
wern't biting so I made sure I made a big splash when I
threw them back. Started cooking dinner and it started
to rain again. While we huddled under the tree the
stew scorched in the bottom of the pot. While we were
staying dry we observed a double rainbow to the east
which helped ease the agony of the burnt food. We hung
the packs as recommended. It clouded up again so we
put up the rain fly from Gary's tent for the first
time since Red Cones. We tied out the four corners
with the edge about two feet off the ground and
attached a cord from an overhead limb to a stone gathered
in the middle to hold it up. We watched the
lightning reflect off the clouds over Painted Lady to the
south until it started raining again then snuggled in
our bags. We drifted off to sleep with the
pitter-patter of rain on our covering. This was one of the most
pleasant days we have had. Strolling along slowly, having
our bath (long overdue), fish for dinner, the double
rainbow, and drifting off to the soothing sound of light
rain. Also only 6.8 miles with no pass made it an easy
day.
