Toxaway/ Petite Lake Loop and Snowyside Peak

I wanted to share a few pictures of the trip that we took with our Ward Scout Troup to the Sawtooh mountain range in Idaho. We did the famous Toxaway/Petite Lake Loop. We left early Monday morning July 20, 2009. For the most part, the hike was pretty good. This area is surrounded by mountains, high alpine lakes, trees everywhere.....it is very beautiful.
This first picture is a summit shot of me on the top of Snowyside Peak
Here is a group picture of the troop on top of Snowyside.

Wooden cairn on the summit. Register was inside the box.

Alice Lake with the Sawtooths in the background. I thought this little area was the reason the range has the name "Sawtooths"

We found this water fall/ stream area above Toxaway Lake. Water running down the soild granite hillside was AWESOME!!

El Capitan and reflection on Alice Lake

Toxaway Lake with Snowyside Peak on the far left. Believe it or not, it is the highest of the 3 peaks here.

Some of the scouts above Toxaway Lake

This is a great place to hike, fish, climb, etc. There is so much wilderness in this area. The downer of the trip was dealing with the mosquitoes. They were EVERYWHERE!! I took my own personal can of repellant and ran out in 3 days. They say late August is a good time to go: low bug count and no snow! It was fun to be with scouts. WE must have pumped over 100 gallons of water over the course of 4 days. No problems with diarrhea or the likes.

Trip Stats:

Loop is a little over 18 miles.

Trailhead elevation: 6500 ft??

Snowyside elevation: 10651 ft

Hike could be done in a long day, or broken up into multiple-day trip. Between the streams and lakes, there were plenty of places to filter water. No fires are allowed on the trail.

Black Mountain, Idaho

I went with Dean Molen from Lehi, Utah to hike in the Black Pine Moutains on the Utah/ Idaho border. I have noticed this mountain range for the longest time. It is right off of I-84 to the west. Being that this is my first outdoor post and my blogging skills are ghetto, dont expect too much today. It was hard for me to figure out how to line my pictures up with the comments. Any how, enjoy!!

Coming down the mountain, we ran into this big storm. It really didnt start dumping on us until we were 1/4 mile to the truck.































This is Dean Molen on the summit. He is 69 years old and is a retired dentist. I connected with him over a year ago. We exchanged emails over the year.....mostly me picking his brain on mountains, nutrition, gear, etc.

































Here is my self-summit shot. Dean is talking to his wife in the background.

Dean making a push for the summit.

This is Bull Mountain, UT to the west.

It was a fun mountain to climb. I felt like I had my nutrition under control. Iwent with a mixture of 2/3 water and 1/3 Gatorade. I snacked on Clif Bars, Swedish Fish and almonds. usually on these climbs, I experience bouts of nausea. I am not very good at taking breaks. On this day, we took a few 5 minute breaks. I got some food down the chute and guess what?.......nausea went away.

My first post

Wow! I cant believe I am doing this. I have entered the era of blogging. I must be crazy! I decided I would create a spot where I could share outdoor adventures, family adventures, etc.