TR: White Pine Lake

I bagged this cache with my brother on Friday 8/5/05 at about 8 p.m.. We had hoped to go for the 2nd leg of the cache, but we had hopes of crossing the ridge and camping at on of the Red Pine Lakes.
The cache was in great shape. I hope to get the second leg of the cache sometime later this summer. There was still plenty of snow in the area above the cache.

We continued on to White Pine Lake just to the east. It was very pretty in the setting sun. After White Pine we wanted to cross the ridge and try to get over to the View of 4 Lakes cache. After being in the boulder field with the sun setting fast we decided to ditch our plans and get to some safer terrain before complete darkness. We were happy we gopt to safer ground because it was a moonless night and very dark.

As we were coming down we did get to see a mountain goat galloping across the boulders. We bushwacked our wat down the east sine of White Pine gulch. The most discouraging part was trying to cross the avalanche debris and stream in the dark with overnight packs on our backs. It took us about an hour to go 500 feet!
I was never so happy to see a trail as I was when we returned to the orignal White Pine trail. We contemplated hiking up to Red Pine when we arrived at the junction lower down the hill bet we were way too spent and decided to head home. On the way down the canyon an unfortunate raccoon jumped in the way and met his demise.

We learned from this trip to give yourself plenty of time on trips in the mountains. I am happy with our decision to get off the steep terrain and avoid any accidents.

I loved this cache, had agreat experience, and hope to return to conquer the others in the area shortly!

On the trail
http://img.groundspeak.com/cache/log...596d3364a2.jpg

This is near where we ditched the packs to find the cache.
http://img.groundspeak.com/cache/log...fceddad3ae.jpg

The Lake
http://img.groundspeak.com/cache/log...79c4b88140.jpg

We headed off to the right of this picture (North). The mountain looked a little scary top tackle in the disappearing light. What is the "right" way to go? We did see a scampering mountain goat over there though.
http://img.groundspeak.com/cache/log...6c06a0801d.jpg

You can see here the route we chose. Does anyone have any better suggestions for next time?
http://img.groundspeak.com/cache/log...9eaa3408f3.jpg

TR from the GC site: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache...7-60669536e0db