Hi kids! Welcome back to the Hyas Lake pictures.

Sunday morning we both woke up around 7:30, and Josh did not go for his usual 9-mile-jog-while-Lizzie-sleeps-in.

Instead, we ate freeze-dried eggs/bacon/hashbrowns stuffed in a tortilla for breakfast (not bad!), sprayed ourselves thoroughly with sunscreen and the practically worthless scentless “Off!”, and set out on a hike together.

The next closest lake is Tuck Lake, 4.8 miles away. Not a bad hike, really…except about half of that is STRAIGHT UP. And you know how I feel about straight up! Like this: 🙁

Since we would have to hike an additional 2 miles back to the car later on, I decided that I didn’t really want to hike all the way to Tuck Lake, but maybe just beat how far I hiked two years ago…I didn’t even make it two miles before the whining and complaining started.

Well, I did beat my hike from two years ago–I made it all the way to the turnoff for Tuck Lake, the last point before the most grueling part of the hike. Even Josh’s Muncle, who is crazy and gonzo-abusive like Josh, said the last two miles to Tuck were the hardest. And it was already noon, the sun was beating down and the black flies were swarming and GOOD GRIEF LET’S GO BACK ALREADY.

Saving grace: near the turnoff there is a rocky area with little pools of icy-cold water. Maggie and Bear Cub cooled off, drank their fill and we filled our water bottles with the filtered water. It tasted so good.

Lizzie has a scenic sit-down. I told Josh I was certain I could do the entire hike next time…as long as we left earlier in the morning. I tell ya, my body has been trained by all these pathetic Pacific Northwest “summers” over the past 10 years and I no longer do well in the heat. Boo hoo!

The 2.8 mile walk downhill was so much easier! Imagine that. On the way back to our camp we stopped at Little Hyas Lake. The shore is muddy and absolutely covered with duck and goose poop, but look at that cuh-luh! So picturesque!

There was not a soul camping, or even hanging out at Little Hyas Lake. Probably because of all the poop.

One of the perks of camping early in the season is that the wildflowers were out in full force. There was a rainbow of flower colors on the hike from the camp back to the car.

Hole-y tree!

Back at camp, we ate a light lunch of salami and thin slices of aged gouda on tortillas. Then we swatted away black flies and read for a little while on the beach.

Can Tuck Lake beat this view? Guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Here’s a shaky little video of Maggie doing her doggy diving for sticks, me finding the perfect flat rock to sit on, and…who is that in the bushes?!

Bubble Butt goes for a float. Floating on the lake on Sunday was definitely a highlight, especially after the arduous hike. Even better: after we packed up camp but before we embarked on the hike back to the car, we took one last dip in the lake, so our bodies were nice and chilled before we strapped our packs on again. Damn smart!

Is that all? I only took 107 photos on this trip (with my camera). The good ol’ iphone is now responsible for picking up that slack, although now that I’ve figured out how to pump up brightness and saturation and add filters while I’m taking pictures on my camera, I might start taking more pictures with it. I just wish it had a viewfinder! Ugh. Don’t ever buy a camera that does not have a viewfinder–LCD screens are worthless in bright sunshine.

I have more summer fun pictures to share later this week, so stay tuned!