A Hike up Lake Mountain
A View into the Scapegoat during Fire Season
August, 2012
Click on any image for a larger view;
Contact garya at this domain if you would like the high quality image for printing
We had a very active 2012 fire season,
and one day Dona and Sid and I decided to hike up Lake Mountain.
It is almost exclusively in burned over timber,
so it is pretty open.
And in August, that means hot.
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| Dona and Sid on the Trail |
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| Grouse |
Grouse |
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Dona Sid |
Lake Mt. is the far peak in the middle |
As you gain altitude, you get a good view of the North Fork of the Blackfoot
and out onto Kleinschmidt Flat.
The Flat seems to live up to its name when viewed from a distance!
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| North Fork Blackfoot |
Kleinschmidt Flat |
Cooper Lake |
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| Fireweed, summit in destance |
Fireweed |
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| Dona |
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Avalanche Chute |
Dona and Sid, Ovando Mt. in background |
| North Fork Blackfoot Valley |
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| Flower Orange Xxx |
As we got up to where we could look east,
we could see a number of fires burning in the Scapegoat Wilderness.
There is a small quanset-type hut on top;
I think once upon a time it housed some weather gear,
but I don't know if it's used any more.
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| Sid, Looking East with Smoke from Fires |
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| Gary and Sid on Lake Mt. Summit, Looking East |
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| Fires |
Fires |
I'm not certain, but I think the mountain behind the fire in the photos below
is Sugarloaf Mt. I didn't take a compass reading but that's about the only
thing that makes sense from the map.
If anyone reading this can verify that or difinitively tell me otherwise,
I'd appreciate it (email garya at this domain).
| Fire near Sugarloaf Mt.(?) |
| Sid, Falls Pt. Fire; Mt. Evans and Scapegoat Mt. in background |
When I first climbed Lake Mountain about twenty years ago,
there was a hardy, gnarled old forest of whitebark pines (I think they were whitebark pines)
near the summit.
However, about ten years ago one of the fires took them out
and now there is nothing but burned and weathering snags.
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| Dead Trees |
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From Lake Mt. looking East
It's a great view of the whole Scapegoat massif;
Mt. Evans is the barren reddish diamond-shaped peak to right of center in front of the Scapegoat massif. |
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| Looking West |
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| Pretty flower I didn't identify... |
We didn't see much wildlife,
but on the way down we did see this raptor I couldn't identify.
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| Xxx Raptor |
Dona's back was giving her trouble; she minimized the pain
by making maximum use of the butt-over technique.
