ET's Info-Stew

Last night's sleep wasn't as good as the first night, but it was decent. I got up at about 7:30 AM, ate breakfast, and thought about what I wanted to do today. Bill and Carl left for the south side of Rockbound for fishing, so I decided I would hike up to Rubicon Reservoir.

I left camp at about 10:30 AM and made it to a ridge more than a mile further in that overlooked Rockbound, Rubicon Reservoir, and Fox Lake. Seeing how close Fox Lake was I figured I'd go check it out after a swim in Rubicon Reservoir.

I made it to and swam in both Rubicon Reservoir and Fox Lake. On the east side of Fox Lake is a rocky place to easily get into and out of the water. You just walk out until you get thigh deep, then jump off the short ledge into chest deep water. With no sharp rocks, twigs, or trees, it's definitely the easiest way to get into any lake I've been to up here.

East of Fox Lake is a ridge. According to Bill on the other side of that ridge along Rockbound is a valley with what looks like a military compound. So I decided to climb the ridge to check it out. Right now I'm sitting in the shade of a rock overlooking that valley. I can see up and down the valley a couple miles in each direction and I see nothing that looks man-made.

The plan now is to chill for a while, eat lunch, read, rest, then head back to camp. I'll have quite a bit of bush-whacking to get back to the trail. So much for a lazy day.

I've very much enjoyed this solo day-hike. I can choose where to go, when, the pace, and the route. So strangely I'm willing to push myself farther than I would if someone else was calling the shots.

22:22 - I left the ridge around Fox Lake at about 14:30. My plan was to head around the northwest part of that lake. I ended up bush-whacking some pretty tough territory and miraculously ended up hitting the trail near the bottom where it crosses the river. That was about 30 minutes, and it took another 45 minutes to get back to camp. I went right for the lake for my last swim in the wilderness this trip.

For the rest of the afternoon I lazed around camp. After dinner we went to a Buck Island camp site to burn some trash and for Carl to cook his fish. It was great to have a fire and sip hot chocolate. After the fire died down we went up into the rocks and watched the stars for a good hour until the moon came up.