Reed Lakes Hike

I hiked the Reed Lakes Trail with the Valley Wanderers today. Our group was small, only 5 of us. The weather looked marginal and had been raining at my house when I left home. Erin, Chris and Rosemary were in a big hurry because they were cold, so they took off down the trail before Michele and I even had our packs fully on. They move pretty quickly so we didn't see much of them after the first mile. Michele was leading the hike and I was glad she stayed with me because I'm not very familiar with this trail. The first part is just a gentle slope with some small streams crossing it. It was a little muddy in places.  The fall colors were really starting to show, with golds and reds scattered across the hillsides. Once we started climbing, Michele and I, and Bella my dog were on our own. She is very familiar with the trails so was a great leader. The trail tends to disappear then reappear again on the other side of the creek. Crossing the creek is always challenging because it involves stepping onto huge boulders that often require the use of both hands and feet. Bella was pretty good at bouncing from boulder to boulder, although she did slip on some mud and started to slide into a mud hole. I caught her by her harness and pulled her back on the trail. Michele was just recovering from being ill earlier this week so had only planned to go to the first lake. She rode up with Rosemary who said she would turn back when Michele was ready. We assumed we would find Rosemary waiting for us at the first lake. But she wasn't there. We ended up continuing on towards the second lake figuring the others had gone there. We were almost to the second lake, and well above the waterfalls when we encountered the other 3 working their way down from the upper lake. Now it was starting to rain fairly hard so we turned back with them. Chris and Erin took off up towards the upper ridge to see if they could find a couple of lakes up there. The 3 of us continued on working our way back down. We crossed the creek in a different place, which was much more complicated than the place we crossed on our way up. I had to put Bella on her leash and air lift her a few times because the rocks were too high for her to jump. She was soaking wet but didn't seem to be bothered by that. We encountered several other dogs and I was happy that she didn't try to pick fights with them as she usually does if she is on her leash. For the most part I did leave her off her leash. She was definitely better at negotiating the boulders than we were. Once the other side we came across another huge boulder field that seemed to go on forever. It became apparent that we would need to cross the creek again because now the other side looked better. This second crossing was even worse. I was getting tired and was struggling while shuffling my trekking poles and my dog as I moved from rock to rock. Another hiker came along and helped me out by taking Bella and carrying over to Michele. I was getting tired and appreciated that nice bit of help. After that, there were still lots of boulders and slick mud but Bella could be off her leash and we moved easily. Once again, Rosemary disappeared and Michele and I were left to our own to find the best path. It was nice to get out of the high trail and descend into the valley. From there on it was easy sailing over the relatively flat trail back to our cars. The trail is a beautiful place but the clouds did diminish a lot of the spectacular mountain views.The fall colors were gorgeous though. It's a lovely time of year to be up there. Our whole trip was 8.57 miles.

Bella got a bath as soon as we got home!