Day Two: Janus Lake to Pear Lake
Distance: 8.5 miles

Pear Lake is somewhat isolated since it is deep within the Henry Jackson Wilderness. We were hoping for a good day of ridge hiking to get there, but the weather turned nasty as soon as we finished Kevin's breakfast of fresh yogurt and granola. What supplemented this repast were the many huckleberries and blueberries growing at our campsite (and that would continue to be found almost every day along the trail). You can see me at the left picking some of them along the trail on this day.

It began as drizzle but soon turned into a shower. I didn't even hesitate after my many years hiking in Washington--I grabbed by rain pants right away and began to hike in them. It was a cold and wet eight miles, up and down Grizzly Peak with no views (and no signs of grizzlies).

We made our destination in mid-afternoon and the rain stopped for a while. Though cold, we set up our tents in flat places in a campsite right along the lakeshore.
Tom harvests blueberries along the trail.
There were some thick trees that we could huddle under during a rain storm, which was fine, except that suddenly Chuck noticed a small stream of rainwater headed for our tent. At first we tried to dig a trench around the tent, but that proved fruitless. So in the middle of the rain, Bob and I had to move the tent, trying not to get the actual tent wet while moving it. This works OK if your tent is self-supporting, but I have a Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight that needs to be staked to stand upright. We had to carefully unstake the tent and its rainfly and try to move it without the tent collapsing. It was a tricky operation, but we did a relatively good job. What was amazing was our Tyvek groundcover that kept the tent floor relatively dry despite the runoff.

Pear Lake looked like it might be a good fishing spot. It seemed wild enough to be enjoyable for a weekend trip. But we were anxious for warmer weather and got up early to make the next lake and perhaps better weather.
Checking out the cold shoreline of Pear Lake.

Day Three
Day Four
Day Five
Day Six
Day Seven
Day Eight
Day Nine
Day Ten

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The firepit had a reflector rock that bounced heat back at us. We were still cold and made it an early night.