Getting High. 2,200 feet to be exact.

Sean's Entry -
This hike has once again proven one thing, we have the best dog ever! Roscoe served as our tour guide, we were never in the lead. He was very happy to be out smelling all the new smells and meeting everyone on the trail. Short of a few spectacular tumbles on the trail when he chose to take a corner too fast or mis-judged a leap between rocks he was a pro. There will be many more hikes!

Britt's entry -
Sean, Roscoe and I went on a hike up to Bridal Veil Falls, then backtracked and went up to Serene Lake, too! The hike is 7.2 miles out and back with a cumulative elevation gain of 2,200 ft. The Forest Service classes the hike as "most difficult," and given there are 23 (!) steep switchbacks on the way up, it's tempting to agree, but mainly for the last few miles up to Lake Serene.

Serene Lake Hike

We packed up Sunday morning, planning for some wet weather, and we weren't wrong. It was slightly misty when we got to the parking lot near Mt. Index and the second we opened the back window (not even the tailgate!) Roscoe was out and racing around. We were all pretty stoked to be going on a hike, but Sean and I opted to conserve our energy. We put on our backpacks, including Roscoe's nifty little pack - this dog carries his own gear - and set off!

Most of the hike it was misty, drizzly, raining and/or pouring. The bonus was that it was hard to tell how sweaty we were! And we were sweatin', let me tell you!

We were kind of suprised at how much of the hike took us along a stream bed - not that we were next to a stream, but the trail was the stream. But, there may have been extra creeks because of the amount of rain that was coming down on the mountain.

One of the most impressive parts of the hike is that much of the stairs and reinforced trails are 4x6 pressure treated wood along with gravel and rocks in sizes from golf ball to football and bigger. I can see where the rocks came from, but I am mystified at the amount of effort it must have taken to schlep that wood and gravel up the rest of the trails and hills and get it in place. I could barely get me and my little pack up there, and there are places that no machinery or wheeled devices would have been able to travel. So a big way-to-go-and-thank-you to all the people who made that trail happen!!

The hike up to the junction for the falls and the lake is about 1.7 miles. Once there, we took the right fork up to the falls, and went up a lot of stairs to get there - a half mile of them, to be exact. Feel the burn! Yeah! We leashed up Roscoe at the top so he wouldn't frolic in the water and get swept down the hillside. Not that we weren't already soaked at that point!

Then we headed back down and decided to take the second trail up to Lake Serene. I'm not sure if Sean knew that was part of my game plan, but he was more than up for it. We started up the 23 steep switchbacks and met a lot of very nice hikers along the way who became close friends with Roscoe - and by "close" I mean that he is a bit of a trail hog. The pack adds about 6" on either side that can bowl you over if he is running past at top speed at a narrow point.

I gotta say, I was huffin' and puffin' up those hills. Apparently neither doing strength/endurance training 3 times a week (me) or running 3-5 miles several times a week (Sean) is enough to prepare one for this hike. The best way to be ready is to just do these more often : ) There were people passing us who never even paused for a break or looked out of breath. Damn them.

There were some gorgeous vistas once we got near the end of the switchbacks, looking out over the valley toward Index. And eventually, after 2 miles, and a total elevation gain of over 2,000 feet, we crested the hill line and came to the crystal clear lake, surrounded by granite cliffs. The temperature dropped significantly once we were there, so we didn't stay too long, just enough for a few slices of pizza and some pictures. It was well worth it, though!

Back at the bottom of the switchbacks, Sean's shoes and socks were so thouroughly drenched that he figured he would just wade through the streams from then on. It cooled him off and made crossing them easier, too. I had new hiking shoes and wicking socks that rocked (God Bless REI) so my feet were neat and dry in spite of dunking them more than a few times. But, I did wear a T-shirt that I could wring water out of at the end, in spite of being covered by a rain coat the whole trip.

The way down was much easier and faster, for obvious reasons. We figure Roscoe must have put in 4 times the mileage we did for the hike because the whole time he went ahead of us, circled back, went ahead, checked back, went ahead, said hi to people up the trail, came back for us, ran off the trail and up hills, etc. Nearly every time he stopped and looked back at us with a sideways head, like: "Ok, don't make me come back one more time. Come on on, guys! Hustle, hustle! What is taking so long?" Of course, once we were a mile or two from getting back to the car, he managed to stay pretty close, and even laid down on the ground when we stopped for a breather.

Once we were back at the parking lot, we opened the tailgate and Roscoe hopped in and immediately laid his head down and started to doze off. He was seriously worn out. (The next day he's licking his poor little paws and not too eager to move around.)

Sean and I changed into drier clothes and then drove away in search of a Slurpee. This was a great hike!