Granola in a Different Bowl: Scab Creek Adventure

Our last-minute, casual car camping trip idea soon turned into a backpacking trip that needed a little more attention to detail, as the nature of backpacking requires. This was Saturday late afternoon and we had to leave right after church mid afternoon the next day. I suppose we could have just thrown what we wanted into our packs, but we wouldn't have gotten very far and it would have caused more pain. After a trip to the store and our packs ready we still hadn't decided where to go. We narrowed it down to 4 hikes from the 40 listed in the book. After sleeping on it we more or less just picked one.

At 5:00 p.m. we found ourselves at the Scab Creek Campground /Trail east of the town Boulder, which is almost exactly two hours from our driveway ... and I didn't speed at all this time. About a mile up the trail we realized we had parked in the packstock parking and there was a backpacker's parking lot further up the road. As frustrating as it was we were not about to turn around and fix it. Sure it added an extra mile on both ends, but whose counting? :-) We surprised ourselves by making it all the way to Little Divide Lake about 7 miles later. We quickly ate, set up camp, and went straight to bed just as it was getting very dark. Two adults and one 60 pound dog is one 60 pound dog too many for the tent we had.

After a restless night, though surprisingly restful at the same time, I fired up the stove for a couple cups of tea because I got tired of looking for the hot chocolate. Totally not worth it in my mind, but happy to do it. Some cold cereal and a bagel later we were ready to see what we could see. We started out with a quick side trip to Divide Lake, and it was worth it. Then up Scab Creek Trail - destination: Dream Lake. Beautiful the whole way, even when the trail disappeared and we found ourselves even further than planned at Bob's Lake. But before that discovery, we took off our shoes to cross a couple sections of creek and hung a left to find Crescent Lake. It was so perfect we found a lovely rock to eat lunch and relax and daydream about soon visiting another Crescent Lake in Oregon. We forced ourselves up before falling asleep and continued on the trail as the map indicated would loop by Dream Lake. I don't think that loop exists, but we think we found the supposed junction as indicated by a nondescript rock-mound after having walked a mile beyond it to Bob's Lake then back. That junction just happens to be missing the trail. Thankfully, things are open enough in that area we just walked over a couple small ridges to Dream Lake and found the trail and verified our location and direction with some other hikers.

It was the middle of the afternoon when we found ourselves back near where we camped and we opted for one last side trip to Pine Island Lake. I want to go back someday, swim out to the islands, and take a nap.

Being the indecisive creatures we are we did not know how far back to the car we would get. We just knew we had to get closer because we didn't want to hike that 7 mile stretch in the morning because Kim had to be to work at 1:30. For several reasons (a bed not shared with the dog, being able to take it easy in the morning, and starving goldfish) we mustered up the strength and pushed through till we arrived at the car and got home that night at 10:00. By our estimations that was a 20 mile day with an elevation gain of 1,000 feet, a loss of 2,450 feet (1,050 of which was in the last 2 or 3 miles), with maximum elevation at 9,900 feet and minimum at 8,200 feet. Altogether, our little backpacking trip lasted 27 hours. It felt great to get out even for a short time.