Saturday, July 19, 2014

I love being scoutmaster

A backpacking trip to Horseshoe Basin with the scouts because our primary destination is aflame.  No need to worry, there are fish there too!  We camped just above Louden Lake on the side of Mt. Armstrong.  Wildflowers were stunning.


Brian amidst the Heather




Spent second day trying to find the trail into our favorite lakes in B.C. but it had been devastated by a wildfire a few years back.  We did manage to find the sign that forbade entry into the U.S. but other than short bits of trail spent 5.9 miles bushwhacking and climbing through thick timber and brush.  We did finally find a trail above timberline, but it only took us to the cliffs overlooking the lakes on the far west side of the Mt. Armstrong massif.
So close and yet so far.
If I'd been with my brothers we'd have climbed down the cliffs but since I was responsible for 8 boys I decided that might not be a good idea.

Not to be deterred, I went to the streams dropping into Horseshoe Basin and managed to find eight cutthroats in the first few holes of one dropping fast into the basin.  Then found 11 more in the one meandering at the trail junction.  Then found three more on the return to the first creek.  All this while the boys cooked dinner.

Did I say that I love being a scoutmaster?

1 comment:

Rick Merrill said...

That looks like the creek Tom and I fished up, alternating holes in a contest until one of us didn't catch a fish - I think we ran out of time before we ran out of fish!

You should have just hiked over the top of Mt Armstrong and down the cliffs on the east side - I don't remember that being too hard, except for the climb up Mt Armstrong.

Glad to know there are still fish in that tiny, meandering stream.