Echo Peak & Red Lake Peak

August 18-19 we got out to condition Patrick a little for his Labor Day hike, do a little scouting for his field work, and enjoy some scenery of course!

 

Patrick and his coworker had recently carried some equipment up a steep hillside to Echo Peak that was covered in vegetation they had to bushwhack through. At the top, they thought they might have seen a trail up the opposite side of the hill. So, Patrick decided to check it out with me and without all his field equipment to see if the next work trip there could be made a little easier.

We started off on a trail that lead to a public lake, but we veered off toward some cute rental cabins in a wooded area along the bottom of a nearby ridge adjacent and connected to Echo Peak. Patrick asked one of the inhabitants if he knew of a trail up it. The man said people walk along the top, so we just decided to cut up it at the next best spot. The earth was dry, pebbly and steep so I took breaks often to regain my sense of stability on more solid footing and catch a breath.

Turns out it wasn't a walk in the park, as the trail wasn't clearly defined in parts and we scrambled up some steep and/or loose gravel areas, but Patrick did choose to go up this way the next time he visited there with his coworkers.

And the view at the top of Tahoe Lake was plenty of reward too! Patrick had shared this view on Facebook not long before our trip, so you may recognize it.

Gorgeous day and vantage point to have an eagle's eye view of the land. Smiles here, but about 10 minutes later we realized we lost our tripod. It must have fell out of Patrick's side pocket somewhere not far from here! Oh well, his birthday took care of the replacement this month. ;)

Turning backwards from where I was standing in the previous photo, you can see the side of the ridge we were on (just out of range of the left side of the photo).

On our way back, we followed the ridge more closely to our car as opposed to going down the same random spot we scrambled up. So, we saw a few new things, including this foundation and fireplace near the rental cabin area. It looks like a fire probably knocked out the rest of it, but it sure would be charming to have it rebuilt!

 

After a flame & ember-cooked dinner and a good night's rest at a car-camping site, we drove up the highway to a trailhead for Red Lake Peak. The parking lot sure did have a nice backdrop! (That's not the one we were hiking to.)

This picture was actually taken at the end of our hike, but it shows you the path we started on. It was relatively low grade and wound through a small section of trees and large boulders before hitting open terrain.

Since our plan was to climb to the top of hilltops we were walking at the base of, we eventually decided just to blaze our own path up, not knowing how long it'd be before we'd come across an official trail to the peak.

The spot we chose was steep (the peak we were aiming to climb was at 10,000 feet after all), and sandy/loose footing in places like the day prior so it was a little slow going. The weather was beautiful but it got pretty blustery as we ascended, so some of the boulders at the top were good wind breaks for staying warm.

 After we arrived to the top of the initial hillside we chose to climb, we followed the ridge. Already the view was quite nice!

To our pleasure, from our perch we noticed a pathway up to our goal (yonder round-top, and the chunk of rock on the left).

Nearly at 10,000 feet! (Probably about 30 feet shy!) We had to scramble up the stuff at the end, and the wind was rather persistent (thus, me wearing Patrick's raincoat), so we took more care. This hike, and this picture in particular, reminds me of our hike in the Quiraing in Scotland (there is a similar photo of me in a frame on our wall).

  A chance for you to see things from our perspective! :)

There was supposedly a log book for signing your name at the top of the rock chunk, but we were unable to find it. I was already beginning to test my comfort zone on some of the areas we were climbing on, and although we brought the rope in case it got too sketchy, Patrick's scouting ahead/higher up didn't reveal anything so we didn't bother getting our additional equipment out. Perhaps the book is there somewhere, but we had already spent too much time looking for it that day and Patrick got me up to 10,000 feet for the first time so it was still a success!

 

On our descent, Patrick was able to find where the trail went down a much easier section of hill than the area we carved for ourselves up it. Way to end on a good note!