Annette Lake

 

Annette Lake, Asahel Curtis: 8.8 miles, 2,000' Gain 

June 4, 2021: A beautiful hike to Annette Lake for my first alpine fishing attempt of the year. I had seen a sliver of lake exposed in reviews and figured the fish would be eager to see the daylight and hungry for anything. Its not a technical hike but its probably always wise to at least pack some hiking shoes... I had been driving around with at least two options in the truck but not this day. Went to slide off my grandpa loafers and had a sick feeling in my gut (while simultaneously imagining thousands of boy scouts slapping their foreheads in disbelief). Oh well, I would never be able to look Oak in the eye if we turned back so I told myself if it came to it, I could be the first to combo micro spikes and loafers on the trail. 

The lower portion of the lake trail was a nice mix of older forest and sneaky views back across the freeway of Granite Mountain while the fallen old trees were doing double duty as both waterfall spouts and bridges.

By about 3,500' you get some avalanche chutes as you side hill the rest of the way to the lake. Really nice views across the way but you had to remember to look down and watch your footing as there was plenty of snow left to give you a good head of steam on your way to meet the creek. This was the first hike of the season with rotten snow bridges and I felt like I did a pretty good job of marking their locations for everyone else coming up that morning. The soft soled shoes were a real bonus in the traction department, in my most delusional moments I was comparing them to moccasins.  

Arriving at the lake, I realized both that the sliver of water was still a sliver and the high level in the lake had it pretty well protected by brush. So it was off with the loafers and into the water for as long as my toes could stand.

The available water was probably too shallow to hold fish but I enjoyed casting my spinner onto the ice to maximize my trawling and its hard to feel bad about failing with that kind of scenery. Even better, it was failing in solitude! The one fish we saw was maybe 10-12" long which is pretty big for an alpine trout but he was tucked so far under the log jam at the outlet that short of electric shock, he wasn't coming out.

I made it down with just enough time to hustle through the Asahel Curtis trail which is a fun marsh/old growth cedar loop for kiddos that deserved more time. I've always ignored trails under 4 miles in the past but now I'm collecting them as they will come in handy for when the highways are backed up and the kids are too carsick to stare at a screen.