Greenwater Lake

Our hiking trip this past weekend took us to Greenwater Lake.  You can see why it's so named.

This hike is my new favorite place to go.  There's even a horse camp though as we walked we were quite sure Bud would never enjoy it.  We did not see any horses either but we talked about Bud enough to pretend he was along.

For a good majority of this trail, you are right next to either a lake or a river not to mention tons of waterfalls.

And my most favorite thing of all?  The bridges that kept taking us over the river again and again.

The views were awesome, the smell of the air was of lush forest, the background noise was of rushing waters and the company was by far the best!  It was an amazing time from which I am still smiling.

The weather was perfect.  Near 70 degrees toward the afternoon.

The trail was well maintained and only one area became a "Dear trail." But it was manageable.

The water was truly this green.  Apparently the fishing here is great as well though I can see my kids wanting to swim here more and swimming is fine in this lake.

There are tons of tent camping areas all along this and we saw lots of families hiking and camping.  From the trail head, it's about 7 miles one way to Echo Lake and the same to Lost Lake.  We didn't make it to either but did get about 3.5 miles in to where the trail forks going to one lake or the other.  I really want to see these places to the end and more than that, I'd like to hike in, stay overnight and then hike out the next day. That sounds like Heaven to me right now.

We hiked about two hours one way before looking for a lunch spot.

We found a spur trial that put us right next to the rushing river and this is where we stopped to eat lunch. 

As we started making our way back, I told Mark how I hate to go home.  I do.  But only because we don't do this enough. We took about three major hikes last year and that was it. Between the weather and needing to do other things on the weekends, it just didn't happen as we wanted it to.  And because we did not go that much, when we did go we were out of shape and it took several days to recover.  We have more time this year so I hope to be sick of hiking by the time fall arrives.

And as it happened on this trip, I wasn't tired, even at the end of the four hour walk. However, one of my knees was aching terribly walking downhill.  So much so that next time, I am going to bring some ibuprofen or alieve to take with lunch.  It was that miserable.  I was fine until we sat down to eat.  After that the hike was mostly downhill which irritated it a lot.  I hope this does not continue on future hikes.  It's one thing when my eyes stop us from going to a place, but it's altogether another when it's pain that holds us back.  The one, I am used to and can do nothing about, but the other I find annoying and can do something about.

Altogether a blessed time!  Looking forward to where we may go next weekend.