Running & Trekking The World!: Reed Lakes Trail

I started this hike with the Valley Wanderers with a bit of hesitation. I was really worried that it might be too much for my dog, Bella. She hiked Snowbird on Monday, Matanuska Peak on Wednesday, and 10 miles at Gold Mint yesterday. I was still tired myself, but it's harder to tell how she feels. I brought my dog carrying backpack just in case things got too tough for her. Well, it only took a few minutes to realize she was not going to have any trouble. I had to scramble to keep up with the leader because Bella was up front with them. She was right at home on the trail as usual. The first 2 miles of this trail are the same as the Snowbird Trail. But instead of splitting and heading straight up where that trail appears, we continued straight ahead across the bridges and on up through the beautiful valley. There is a lot of water and marshy land out there. But the trail sticks mostly to the higher dry areas until it climbs fairly steeply up through granite and loose rocks. The views across the valley are wonderful and are dotted with wildflowers. The rocks get progressively larger and more abundant until we reach the dreaded boulder field for which Reed Lakes Trail is well known. Several of the group considered turning back once reaching the boulders. But we were making fairly good progress, so we all crossed them with a reasonable amount of ease. I had a few complicated extra adventures when reaching gigantic boulders too high for Bella's little legs. It was interesting at times, scrambling up 4 feet on a slippery rock with my trekking poles in one hand and Bella in the other. There were a number of times that I had to give her a lift assist. She often chose her own route and surprised us all by finding ways better than what we had chosen. One time she scared me as she did a giant leap up a huge boulder and was literally hanging by her front toenails and managed to kick herself to the top! I tried to stay as close as possible to her after that. The Reed Creek is running furiously beneath most of those boulders, so it is important to be careful not to slip into the water. Bella stopped every time I yelled at her to wait, after that. If she looked perplexed, I went to her and scooped her up and over the biggest boulders. For the most part though, Bella did a better job on the boulders than I did. We had to cross the creek via boulder scrambles 3 times. The last crossing had the biggest boulders. We had an interesting time getting over those. Once we reached the lower lake, we were mostly free of boulders. That was a great place to take a short lunch break. Some of our group of 13 preferred to hike on up to the beautiful waterfall to eat. Of course, Bella followed them, so I quickly decided I needed to join them. It was worth it because that's a fantastic spot to sit and enjoy the wonders of nature. Jo and Charlie soon joined us at the waterfall but decided they didn't want to continue to the Upper Reed Lake. It was raining slightly, and they were concerned about crossing the boulders in the rain. So, they turned back and the rest of us went on another mile or so to the Upper Lake. That was very worth the trip. I had only been there once before so was quite excited when we arrived. It is a totally majestic lake, surrounded by towering mountains on 3 sides. The steep pass at the far end leads to the Bomber Glacier and is part of the Bomber Traverse that I dream of doing someday. I've been to 3 of the passes that lead to that route, but so far, I only dream of going the rest of the way. I'm kind of doing it in pieces! We had a nice break there then reluctantly turned back. With thoughts of crossing those gnarly boulders haunting my mind, I figured that since we made it one way, we'd make it in the other direction. The descent was fairly easy until we came to the first crossing with the gigantic boulders. We all had our problems crossing the largest rock. It was definitely easier from the other direction. In order to cross it we had to somehow get on top and straddle it, then slip down the other side to a single foothold just above the water. I had Bella in one hand and my poles in the other. That was quite the dilemma. A young woman crossing from the opposite direction climbed up to help by first taking Bella then taking my poles. I managed to reach the foot hold and get myself to the other side with dry feet. I watched the rest of our group as they struggled with that particular part of the crossing. A couple of them did slip into the water but there were only a few scrapes and wet feet, but no injuries. We saw some other hikers crossing at a lower point and I'm taking note of that point for next time. It looked a lot easier. There are some comical photos others took of some of us negotiating that giant rock. I likely looked the craziest of all with my need for two sets of arms. We continued on through piles of giant rocks, with me elevating Bella from time to time. She still beat me across the last 2 creek crossings. We were all very happy to once again, be back on a regular trail as we wound our way up out of the upper creek bed to the ridge above the vast lower valley. The creek drops into that valley via another spectacular waterfall. We found lots of slippery, muddy spots but all found our way easily back across the bridges and down the last 2-mile section of trail to the trailhead. We were all a little muddy and wet but totally elated that we made it to the Upper Reed Lake. Its a very tough trail but a challenging and interesting hike to one of the most beautiful places on earth, at least in my opinion.