is long lake a viable 3 day (2 night) trip?

[ibenick]

No worries on getting the boots wet...i'll likely be wearing mys teva zilches the entire time haha. I have a good harness for my dog so I'll just stick her leash on that and go. Knowing my dog though, i should be more worried about myself than her haha If others have been succesful at crossing it we should be fine as long as we aren't stupid, lol.

Damn! I can't believe you backpack in those things! I bet they're nice and light on the feet though.

[gloo]

Damn! I can't believe you backpack in those things! I bet they're nice and light on the feet though.

LOL, super light its amazing. My feet can't handle regular backpacking boots... they cause me way too much pain.

[gloo]

2 more questions: my ole book says the better camping area are near the two unnamed lakes near Ryders lake? do you guys agree? and if I wanted to bag a peak (or just get up high for awesome views) - what one/route should I look at doing? looks like hayden pea and mount agassiz are the nearest peaks.

[CarpeyBiggs]

mcpheters has less wooded area around it, so ryder is typically preferred if you want some shelter.

hayden is a tougher climb than agassiz, but i haven't done either so i'm just sharing second-hand info. spread-eagle is pretty easy as well. i might try and sneak out into that area this weekend though, perhaps i'll cross your path.

[ibenick]

Yep, the sheltered spots are pretty much all to the east and some to the south of Ryder. When we did it we found a sweet spot right on the SE corner of the unnamed lake directly south of Ryder. I highly recommend that spot if its available. Great views of Hayden over the lake and Ryder is just a few hundred feet away. I wouldn't normally try to camp at McPheters although I did see a few sights up that way when I day hiked it. The weather pattern is supposed to get really dry starting today so if there was ever a good time to camp up there, this weekend would be it. Not saying you won't get stormed on, just saying the chances are lower. Personally, I would probably camp at McPheters this weekend if I were heading that way. It's a very cool lake that I would have liked to spend more time at.

The peak info is all readily available on Summitpost. If you just want a really easy way to get up onto the ridge for some good photos, hike to the very top of the basin and you'll get to a low saddle that you can hike right up into. Some people use it to get into the basin from the Highline trail but from what I hear it's not recommended with big packs.

This is the saddle as seen from the top of the basin: