Hey Guys! This post is just in time for Valentine’s Day! Read on for my heartache and foot ache hiking to Faux Heart Lake.
Day 2 was less eventful than Day 1, except for when we parted ways with Miss Shanna and discovered Mom’s big camera no longer worked. Miss Shanna returned to the trailhead the way we came, and we continued on the High Divide Loop. I was kind of sad to say bye for now. After saying goodbye, our family explored the Lunch Lake area and admired the ice formations. That’s when we discovered that Mom’s camera wouldn’t turn on. Unfortunately, the night before Mom forgot to put her camera into her sleeping bag, and it settled into retirement as a very expensive brick. At least she had her phone and she could still take pictures with that.
We thought the trail was going to be 4 miles going downhill, but you’ll soon see that was a lie. When we left Lunch Lake, we had to backtrack UP the icy, stone stairs. I thought that was fun; Mom not so much. I practically ran up the stairs, which I later regretted when I became hangry. Once we got up, we continued past the boulder sandwich and back onto the High Divide Trail. I didn’t eat much for breakfast and burned my energy running up the stairs, so I was kind of tired and cranky plus I wanted a real sandwich.
We continued on the High Divide Trail, sandwichless, and saw stunning red fall foliage and towering, snow-capped mountains. This part of the High Divide Trail offered views towards the southwest over the Hoh River and Hoh Lake until you reach Bogachiel Peak. It was nice to finally see the scenery I hiked so hard to reach instead of blizzard conditions like the day before. Eventually, we took a break at a scenic overlook to eat a light lunch of salami and other snacky foods. Not a sandwich, but still good. I’ll take it, mostly because I didn’t have a choice. During this break, I also played in the snow.
As we continued past Bogachiel Peak and crossed the ridgeline, our view changed to the north and we could now see down into Seven Lakes Basin. I was so tired and cranky (still) that I didn’t fully appreciate the spectacular view, but I did count more than seven lakes. As we continued, I got even more frustrated because there were a LOT of PUDs (pointless ups and downs). When we saw a lake that looked like a heart, we all got excited because we were planning to camp at Heart Lake campground. Turns out it was a different lake, and I started to feel hopeless and we would never reach our campsite. Shortly after Faux Heart Lake (really called Lake Number 8), we got to somewhere that looked like our campsite. Since it was getting dark, we set up camp here.
The campsite was nice except there was no water source nearby. It had two trees perfectly spaced for the hammock fly that we use for sheltering our cooking station. There was a big empty, flat spot for our tent. Water wasn’t a big issue that night because we still had plenty in our bladders. That night, we didn’t know about the amazing bonus we’d get the next morning.
I don’t remember what we ate (according to the photo, we had beef stroganoff), but after we finished dinner, we all started getting ready for bed. When we were all settling into our sleeping bags, I stayed up for a little bit, looking at the trail map for Day 3 because I didn’t want to be disappointed again. Once I was done, I put the map in one of the tent pockets and went to sleep. Not too long after, we heard noises outside of our tent. We heard leaves crunching and twigs snapping like something or someone was walking through the forest. We also heard some snuffling and shuffling. We think it was a BEAR, right outside of our tent. Thankfully, we didn’t end up becoming a triple-stuffed bear burrito. And that was the end of Day 2. Have a Happy Valentine’s Day! Read the next post about finding my “heart” on the High Divide Loop.
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