Where we went and why
Today we had planned on going to Hand Lake and Scott Lake. We tried to do Scott Lake the other day, but the mosquitoes were out in droves and we had no bug spray. We picked up some bug spray yesterday and decided to do Scott Lake and and Hand Lake today. However, we only made it to Hand Lake. It was a big warmer than we thought it was going to be, the first hike was a bit longer than we thought it would be and the terrain was softer than we thought it would be.
How to get there
The hike is between mile markers 72 and 73 on the McKenzie Highway. You'll see a hiker symbol on the left side of the road if you're heading west and the right side of the road if you're heading east. Park there and walk across the street to the trailhead. I think it's HWY 242. This road get closed for the winter and reopens in June. If you plan on going in June, maybe sure you find out if the road has been opened yet. If you go in the fall, make sure the road hasn't been closed yet. If you go in July/August, bring the bug spray!
The Hike
The trail starts off level and then you go downhill at a gentle grade. After about half a mile, you come to a shelter. It's in pretty good condition for as old as it is. There is a fire pit inside of it and another one outside of it. There is a nice meadow there as well. The meadows were a bit wet and filled with little tiny mosquitoes ass well as some rather big ones.
After you get to the shelter, follow the path and you'll start going uphill. After a little bit, you'll come to a sign that says Scott Lake to the left and Robinson Lake to the right. If you want to do the loop around Hand Lake, you should go right. Follow the path for a bit, but keep an eye out to the right. If you go down the hill, you can get an awesome picture of the mountains reflecting in the lake. You can either climb back up to the path, or you go follow the lava flow parallel to the main trail. It will get a little rocky and annoying if you follow the lava flow, but that's what we did. Eventually we went back up to the path, but it was less steep when we did it.
Okay, so you're back on the main path. You're looking for some little rock pyramids (cairns). There are two of them. One is more cairn looking than the other. This is this old McKenzie Wagon Road. We saw it at the Dee Wright Observatory, but we didn't get to walk on it. We got to walk on it here though! I'm not a history buff, but it does seem pretty cool to be walking on something that was used over 100 years ago. People went across this thing with wagons. I can't imagine doing that. It was hard enough walking across it. I can't imagine driving a wagon across it.
Keep following the wagon road as it winds around. Eventually, you'll get to the other side and you'll walk along the lake. The lake is gorgeous. The water was soooooooooooo clear! The sand along the lake was amazing. It had so many different colors to it. The first stretch by the river is on a hill and the sand is really soft. This part of the path sucked. It flattened out eventually, but was still pretty soft. Eventually we got off of the sand and onto some grassy stuff, but the ground was still pretty soft. The shape of the lake is really weird, so you think you're almost back to the shelter, but you have to go out of your way to the left to get across the water. If we had brought our water shoes, we might have thought about going through it, but we didn't, so we didn't.
So after you wind around to the left, you go straight for a bit and then you just need to find a place to cross over. Just look for the narrowest part of the little river coming out of the lake. There were rocks that made it easier for us. Okay so now you're heading back towards the shelter. There is this thing off to the left that looks like it's a path. I don't suggest taking it. My husband thought it would be a great idea to take it as a short cut back to the main path. The ground was really soft and eventually the path ended. We then went through the woods "bushwacking" as my husband put it to get back to the path. Fortunately, I had started MapMyHike before we left, so I wasn't all that worried about getting lost. The crazy thing............ at some point, I pulled out my phone to refer to the map, and I said......"OMG Magellen has gotten us within 25 feet of the trail." I was wrong about the 25 feet part, but he was heading in the direction of the trail. We did a little skirting around some trees and a little climbing over some trees, but his little short cut really did get us back to the path. He had a blast in the woods. I wouldn't say that I had a blast, but it was an interesting experience and since I had the map, I knew that we couldn't get lost for too long so I was okay with him having his fun. There was one downed tree that was a bit troubling for me to get over. He actually had to help pull me up because I just didn't have the leg strength for the giant step up. Once I was on top of it, he said to jump down. I don't jump. It's just not something I do. While I was contemplating how to get down, the bark on the tree gave way and forced me to the ground. I managed to land on my feet though. Still not really sure how, but I did. Nothing broke either! Shortly after that we found the path. It was a short walk up a hill to get back to the car. We were a bit tired and hot so we skipped Scott Lake. We will do it in a week or two though.
Overall Thoughts
There were no restrooms on this trip, but there were plenty of places that you could pull off into the woods and take care of things if needed. It was a fairly secluded, so your odds of being seen are slim to known. Apparently, not many people know about this hike. We told three different people about going on the hike, and none of them had even heard of it. The sign on the side of the road didn't have the name of the lake on it. There were two cars at the parking spot when we got there and when we left. There was a family there, but we saw no other people along the trail. They seemed to be hanging out by the lake and not doing the hike while we were. There were plenty of foot prints and deer tracks along the path.
The trail on the first side was pretty decent. It was packed dirt and a decent width to walk comfortably. There were some trees that has fallen down. Some of the trees had been cut so you didn't have to climb over them, but others hadn't been. The path on the wagon road had a lot of loose lava rocks, so watch your step. The path on the other side was wide, but it was pretty sandy and loose. We both really liked this walk.
The Video
If you like the pictures, feel free to check out my Hand Lake YouTube video.
BodyMedia Screen Shot
Here is my BodyMedia screen shot for the hike. I'm not really sure what's up with the big dip. I don't remember stopping for that long, but apparently we did. I'm surprised by all of the spikes because I don't remember stopping or slowing down so much, but I did take over 100 pictures, so maybe that's what they all were.
MapMyHike
Here is the MapMyHike screen shot. The book said that it was 2.6 miles, but MapMyHike shows that we did 3.43 miles. I'm not sure why the books and MapMyHike never agree on this stuff. The elevation is about what the book showed. It said 200 feet, and MapMyHike came in just under that.
BackCountry Navigator
The miles on this agree with MapMyHike. The elevation is consistent as well. This hike wasn't very steep which was good! I really wish this app gave a elevation map instead of just showing the max min and gain.
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