Weather:  Warm-ish, but not hot.
Present were:  Mike, K7DOU;  Gordon, K7HFV;  Ron, K7RJ;  Clint, KA7OEI.
Destination:  A "loop" consisting of the ascent of Mill-D (North) Fork, past Dog Lake, and then down Butler Fork.
Question of the day:  "Doesn't the water look a bit lower than you'd think it ought to be?"
Total distance:  Approx. 4.34 miles, car-to-car.
Times:  Depart vehicle:  1842;  Trail junction below the lake:  1921;  Arrive at lake:  1935;  Depart lake:  2016;  Arrive at car at Butler Fork:  2119
Altitudes in feet ASL (approx):  Vehicle at Mill-D North parking:  7250;  Desolation Lake trail junction:  8060;  Dog Lake:  8780;  Maximum elevation (on trail between Mill-D and Butler):  8780;  Junction of Gobbler's Knob trail:  7579;  Vehicle at Butler Fork:  7152
Elevation gain/loss:  Approx. 1530 feet up and 1628 feet down.
Local sunset on this date:  9:03 PM (the latest Wednsday night sunset of the year.)

We went to this same place in 2004 - click here to see pictures from that trip.  Elevation readings will be slightly different owing to different GPS readings.

Images (100-1066k each, .JPG):
 

• IMG02536 - Ron, looking at the information sign at the Mill-D (North) trailhead.
• IMG02539 - A Wabbit!  (just up from the trailhead.)
• IMG02541 - Dog Lake, before sunset.  Similar is #2547.
• IMG02543 - Ron and Mike near Dog Lake, waiting for Gordon.
• IMG02544 - Mike, apparently doing a Carol Burnett imitation... (#2545 was taken just a few seconds later.)
• IMG02550 - Another view of Dog Lake, before sunset.  (#2550_A1 is a modified monochrome image of the same scene.)
• IMG02552h - Aplenglow on the peaks across the canyon.

• The recorded GPS track of the hike.
• The elevation profile of the hike
• A more-detailed map with the GPS track of the hike (plus surrounding landmarks)

This is one of those "car-spot" hikes where the beginning point is far enough away from the ending point that a bit of car shuffling is required to reunite driver with vehicle before everyone goes back down the canyon.  On this loop, one typically drops a car off at Butler fork and starts from Mill-D North fork.  In case you were wondering, The Mill-D trailhead is several hundred feet higher than the Butler Fork trailhead...

This is also one of those trails that is shared on alternate days with mountain bikers (although we can never seem to remember exactly which day that is...)  While we were never (nearly) knocked over by an over-exhuberant biker tearing downhill, we (Ron and I) did pass (repeatedly) some of the bikers on their uphill journey.  It appeared that the trail had been free of snow for only a week or two and it was, in places, badly rutted in such a way that riding a bike up (and especially down!) would have been very hazardous.

When we got to Dog Lake, there seemed to be a slight fog at the water's edge in those areas flooded with the waning sunlight.  It wasn't fog, of course, but dense clouds of gnats - of the inhaling kind and not of the biting kind...  We also noticed that the water level of the lake seemed (to us) to be a bit lower than one would expect it to be with the heavy runoff having occurred only relatively recently (and with occasional patches of snow hiding in the shaded wooded areas...)

The cross trail (between the top of Mill-D and Butler) had only a few snowbanks that required crossing and the descent into Butler Fork was somewhat less-muddy than we'd seen in years past.  The stream going down Butler Fork, while flowing nicely, did not pose any problems in crossing.  The rest of the hike down Butler fork was uneventful, save for the spectacular Aplenglow on the higher peaks on the other side of the canyon.

• If you want one (or more) of these images and wish some sort of adjustment (color, brightness, exposure, etc.) please let me know:  All of these image have been processed in some way.
• These images are 344-558k in size, .JPG and are in chronological order.
• No-one ever said that all of these images (or any of them) were good.  Some of them may have definite focus/exposure "issues."
• EXIF data is present for most of the images, showing time, date, and precise exposure conditions.  Recent versions of Irfanview will show this in the "View->Image Information->EXIF" tab.  Note that cropping/noise reduction required the use of another program which may have removed some/most of this EXIF data.
• Images suffixed with "h" are half-size.  This was done for images that were somewhat out of focus (due to misfocus or camera/subject movement associated with long shutter times) or those that required some extra noise reduction and had lost some detail anyway.
• All images taken using a Sigma SD-10 camera.  All were taken using the 18-50mm zoom lens, except for #2359.

Additional notes:

• Elevations/distances may vary as compared to maps or previous years' hikes owing to slightly different routes, quality of GPS data, or just plain screwing things up.

Go to the 2005 Wednesday Night Hike page, or main Wednesday Night Hike index page.