The day stats parlty cloudy, a good day for a hike. I take a picture out my window.
My pack is light today, only about 20-25 pounds. the pack, rain gear, food, and camera gear. I need to walk down towards the harbor to reach the trailhead. I start up the trail and after a short while, I think to myself, "What in the world does Elizabeth mean when she says the trail gets steep AFTER the lower lake?"
I arrive at the lower lake and am pleased, I do not spend much time there and I push on towards Upper Dewey Lake. I walk through verdant landscape, trees and bushes, berries and ferns, moss and mushrooms. the trail at this point is basically a dry (relatively speaking) stream bed filled with rocks, boulders, tree roots and slippery mud. It parallels a rushing creek with lots of small tumbling water falls and a few choice areas where I can rest and sit, gazing at the rushing water. I see flecks of gold in the sand and wonder, how can you tell if this is true gold or fools gold? I reflect on the Chilkoot and my experiences and I am very happy.
Up, Up and up I climb, I hope that Upper Dewey is worth the climb. Up, up and up I continue to climb, understanding now, what Elizabeth meant when she said the trail to the upper lake got steep. The trail is now wet and starting to get slippery. I take out my GPS to check the elevation and notice I still have 1500 feet to climb. Did I bite off more than I can chose, I realize that if I was carrying the same load as I did on the Chilkoot, I probably wouldn't complete this hike.
On and on I go, having to make a conscious effort to look around at the beauty around me. Soon, I only have 1,000' than 500' and then I top a rise and I see a meadow off to my left and in the distance I see a cabin. It is a rental that looks out over upper Dewey lake.
I take a path to the right that crosses a small foot bridge and come across another older cabin that is available to anyone - first come first served and is maintained by a local volunteer organization. Looking inside, I decide that it is used by local people as a party place. I would be hard pressed before I slept in that place.
I walk to the lake and it is very scenic even under the gray overcast sky. I bet it would be beautiful with the sun shining and the surrounding mountain peaks reflecting in a mirror like blue lake. I look at my hike information and The Devils Punch Bowl is only another .8 miles further, but also an additional two hours of hiking and I decide for my own safety, it is time to turn around and head back to Skagway for the day. The trip down is treacherous, the trail is slippery and I slip and fall three times on wet roots that are laying in the trail. The views are terrific.
When I finally get back to town, I reward myself with a double tall, peppermint, breve`, no foam latte` $6.40 please. I walk back to the B&B and check my iPod touch for e-mail and there is a mail from Alaska Airlines about my Thursday afternoon flight and I gasp out loud. I thought I was staying until Friday! My ferry ticket was purchased for Friday, my brother planned on picking me up from Sea-Tac on Friday evening and I had a private tour of Skagway scheduled for Thursday. I was enjoying Alaska and was not ready to return home.
I made the arrangements I needed to make to keep from missing my flight and arrived back in Seattle around 6:30 Thursday evening and finally got home around midnight that night.
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