John, Ruby and I wanted to escape the tourist mayhem in McCall so we headed up Idler Creek for a couple of targets that had been on our list for a while. Below, the East Fork of the Lake Fork trail is quite a nice morning stroll, despite the full packs. Check out John’s Trip Report here.
After hiking for a while, we were looking up the Idler Creek drainage. Our peak target for the trip is Nick Peak which we will climb tomorrow. Its up on the ridge just below the sun. Although not so impressive from this angle, Nick Peak is one of the tallest peaks in the area and visible from downtown McCall.
The Idler Creek drainage is a lush and brushy canyon with not much of a trail. Lets not sugar coat it……Its a bushwhack!
After about 4 hours of full packing, we are on the ridge looking down at Nick Lake, our destination for the evening.
It wasn’t long upon our arrival that John took off his pants and started fishing.
Ruby loving the mountain sunshine.
We all then went for a swim. Nick Lake is a very large and deep mountain lake which means it was a little chilly.
An evening shot. We had been to Nick Lake before but only spent a small amount of time. See that trip report here.
John fishing again, this time with pants.
In the middle of the night, we were awoken by an intense thunderstorm off to the north. I jumped out of bed hoping to get some lighting shots but they were all over the ridge so just got a glow.
Come back tomorrow and check out the sunrise and the climb of Nick Peak.
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