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Base Camp
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- Statistics:
- Date Hiked: June 28, 2003
- Miles Hiked: 4.8
- Elevation Gain: 1,413'
- Hiking Partner(s): Becky,
Taylor, Kennedy, Payton Just & Amy, Ryan, Kirby, Parker Hall (Payton
is a Bassett Hound, Kirby is a Golden Retriever, & Parker is a
Yellow Lab.)
- Description:
Rice
Lake and Rice Peak are located east of Cascade (ID) and south of Warm
Lake past Stolle Meadows.
The final few miles of road to the trailhead is extremely rough,
and I would be surprised if a low clearance passenger vehicle could make
it. Becky
and I decided to go camping with a couple of friends, and a short hike
was put on the agenda for the weekend.
We drove up to the Stolle Meadows area Friday evening where Amy
and Ryan had already set up camp.
The Hall’s are professional campers that had all the bases
clearly covered.
My weak attempt to provide any assistance to setting up or
contributing to camp was futile.
My lack of car camping skills became evident early to the
Halls’, as they observed me set up my small two man backpacking tent
for myself, my wife, the two kids, and, as it turns out, our dog.
Becky and I were very fortunate to be invited along to join such
seasoned camping veterans and partake in their weekend.
We enjoyed the night around a campfire and turned in around 11:00. -
We woke on
Saturday morning, had a small bite to eat, and proceeded to the
trailhead for our hike. As
mentioned above, the road was difficult to navigate and on a couple of
occasions where we ran into snow, Becky wanted me to stop.
I felt as though we were close, so we continued on and finally
made it to the end of the road. Our
hopes of a friendly trail were quickly diminished when the very first
step of the hike was on 2 feet of snow.
You could see the trail occasionally, so I suggested that we at
least try and make it to the lake which was approximately one half mile
away. Everyone agreed and
we were off. I had Kennedy
in the child carrier and Becky packed our water and supplies, while Ryan
carried the Hall’s water and supplies (and occasionally Taylor when
she wasn’t able to walk). The
dogs were extremely excited.
-
It didn’t
take long before we were at the lake and the lookout on Rice Peak was in
sight. It went quite
quickly, and after seeing the open slopes to the west, Ryan recommended
we continue and try and make it to the summit.
Everyone was in agreement so we pushed forward.
The grade remained nominal for a short while after the lake, but
then started to increase and switchback as we climbed to a saddle
between the peak and Peak 8,469. The trail became less and less evident due to snow as we
gained elevation and made our way over to the north face of the saddle.
When the trail was gone for good, we simply estimated where we
thought it would come out at the top of the saddle and climbed a
snowfield to that point.
-
We estimated
correctly and found the open trail that led to Rice Peak from the
saddle. Becky, the two
kids, and our dog called it a day at the saddle as Ryan, Amy, and I
continued to the lookout. It
took us just under 20 minutes to make it to the top where we enjoyed the
views, yelled down to our party below, and took some photos.
- The
hike down started off lively as we all glissaded down the snowfields
from the saddle. After
this, it was rather uneventful other than Kennedy’s singing and Taylor
almost falling asleep on Ryan’s back.
Anyway, we enjoyed the rest of the weekend eating great Dutch
oven cooking, taking a quick dip in Warm Lake, and drinking a few beers.
- Maps:
- The 3D map faces southeast.
- Click here to view a 2D map of
the area where this hike is located.
- Click here to view a
3D map of
the area where this hike is located.
- Photographs:
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www.
just
hiking
.com
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