Signboard in Brighton showing information about some of the trails.  Click on image for a view of the informational signboard.

Replicating the old image - again:

On the July 19th hike we attempted to find the locations from which some old photographs were taken.  For three of the four pictures, we were reasonably convinced that we had done so to the extent that it was possible, considering that they were taken prior to the construction of the Twin Lakes dam and that they showed a water level 50-60 feet lower than it is today.

One of the pictures, however, labeled "Twin Lake, 1913" originally had Gordon (and, later, Chris) skeptical as to its labeling.  Indeed, trying to replicate the photographer's location at Twin Lakes proved to be problematic as we could not seem to find features that lined up as well as we thought they could.  It was figured that, perhaps, in the process of the dam's construction, that some of the rock formations had been blasted and/or were later covered with water.

On this hike we had the opportunity to try to find the photographer's location again - this time, at Lake Mary.  We believe that we were more successful this time, having found a location at the most southern (and eastern) edge of the lake - due south of the most northern portion of the lake (see the map track below.)

Upper Left:  Original "Old" picture.  The other three pictures are taken from locations that appear to be very near the same place.  Click on any picture for a full-sized version.

As you can see, it would appear that the three "new" pictures appear to be taken in a location very close to the original - with the "closest" match appearing to be the bottom-left image.  All of these pictures were taken within 100 feet of each other, but it is clear that the bottom-right picture was taken farthest back and more toward the east than the others.  Note:  If you look carefully at the Lake Mary picture on the trailhead signpost you'll note that it, too, is taken from similar location.

Comment:  In an attempt to make the "new" pictures look like the old ones, I obviously had to convert them to black-and-white.  Additionally, it is apparent that the original image was likely taken nearer midday - possibly with a light cloud cover or haze that provided diffuse lighting.

In the process of preparing these images, I noted that simply converting it to black and white and adjusting the dynamics of the image weren't quite enough to make it look like the original:  Completely removing all information from the red channel (before converting to black and white) seemed to help it match a bit better - possibly indicating that the film used in the original photo was not red-sensitive.  I did not make any attempt to simulate the "unsharp" nature or the light leakage/degradation of the original photo.

New Images (.JPG format):

• IMG03880 - A view of Lake Mary from one of the suspect vantage points.  Similar are #'s 3881, 3882 and 3884.  These images were modified and cropped above to make them look more like the original image.
  
• IMG03887 - Bruce, Gordon and Dale, discussing weighty matters near the suspect "old photo" site.
  
• IMG03888 - A glimpse of Lake Mary through the trees.
  
• IMG03891 - The trail upwards, through the Lake Catherine cirque.
• IMG03920 - The obligatory group picture.  L->R:  Bruce, Gordon, Clint, Dale.
  

• The elevation profile of the hike - This shows the ups and downs of the trail. 
  
• A detailed map with the GPS track of the hike (plus surrounding landmarks, 522k)
  

This is a composite of several smaller pictures.  Please note that due to size, it may not display properly on some browsers and you may need to use an image viewer like Irfanview to view it properly and zoom in on some of the details.  Note that details (exposure, time, location, etc.) are noted in file's EXIF "Comments" field.

• Catherine Pass Pano- A wide-angle shot from Catherine Pass, looking (mostly) into the Lake Catherine Cirque.  This image, composed of 26 individual images, encompasses somewhat over 180 degrees of view.  This image was reduced in size by 50% when it was converted to .JPG to make it more manageable.  (1550k .JPG - The 6.8 meg full-sized JPG is here.)
  

This hike ended up having a somewhat lighter turnout that normal as two of the regulars (Mike and Ron) were unable to attend and several of the other "semi-regulars" had other commitments.  While it would seem that a smaller number of people would make it easier to come to a decision, we found that, in this case, it did:  We decided to go to Catherine Pass to check out the suspicion that one of the old photographs that we'd looked at on the July 19th hike had been mislabeled and was, in fact, Lake Mary.  I'd hoped to print a new copy of the picture in question, but I'd forgotten to do so - but I still had the now-tattered picture from the 19th:  With a bit of strategic folding, matching of torn seams and TLC, the picture was just usable in its sorry state.

So, we headed up to Brighton.  On the drive up (in Bruce's car this time - we didn't have to pedal like we did in Dale's...) we could not help but notice the water accumulating on the windshield.  When we got to Brighton, it was sunny - but raining lightly.  We probably delayed a bit in our start - ostensively in preparing our gear for the hike while Bruce spoke to some German tourists in their native language - but we were hoping that the rain would stop.  It didn't stop, but we plowed ahead anyway as it was so light that weren't really getting wet.  By the time we got to the top of the main ski run at Brighton, the rain (and the accompanying rainbow) had disappeared, leaving in its wake some clouds that, we hoped, would enhance the evening's alpenglow.

Upon arrival at Lake Mary, we regrouped and started along the trail, trying to match up the features seen in the picture with what we were seeing with our eyes.  It became clear to us (as had the initial impressions of Gordon and Chris) that this was, in fact, the lake in the photograph and that the photographs original annotation was incorrect:  It was now a matter of skirting around to find the "magic" location - and we think that we did.

In comparing the photograph with "real life" it would appear the the photo's annotation was incorrect:  Rather than being "Twin Lakes, 1913" it was clearly Lake Mary, taken sometime after the dam had been completed (which happened in the early summer of 1915) and the resulting reservoir had filled completely.

After the scouting around for the picture location, we continued up to Catherine Pass, making it there just in time to see the last bit of alpenglow on Sunset Peak - the destination of last week's hike.  We were pleased to note that the population of flying, biting insects was nearly negligable - possibly due to the recent rain and there not having been enough time for a new brood to hatch.

For variety, we decided to take a slightly different route down.  Above Lake Martha the trail switches back, heading to the north for a distance, gaining altitude, and then heading back.  At the point that it switches once again toward Lake Catherine, there is a junction of another trail (probably an old wagon road) that drops down and intersects the main trail near Lake Dog - and we chose to take this trail down.  This trail descends more steeply than the main trail - not as much of a problem if one is going down - and it is about 0.45 miles shorter.

The entire descent went without incident and we all got back to Bruce's car and returned to the parking lot safely with Bruce (for whom this is likely the last Wednesday Night Hike of the season due to changing schedules) and Dale heading home.  Afterwards, Gordon and I went to the Cottonwood Mall TGI Friday's for a dime lime where Ron met us.

Comments:

• 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 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" (if any) 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 and were taken using the 18-50mm zoom lens, except as noted in the EXIF data.

Go to the 2006 Wednesday Night Hike page, or main Wednesday Night Hike index page.

Historical info about these lakes was taken from "The Lady in the Ore Bucket" by Charles Keller