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I was fortunate enough to get a free weekend off as an early Father’s Day present, so into the wild I went. James and Nathan were able to go which was great, since the last time the three of us backpacked together was about six years ago at Glacier National Park.

After a little discussion we decided to try out Little Spar Lake in the proposed Scotchman Peaks Wilderness, with a solid plan B in case there was too much snow at Little Spar. On the drive over we became a little concerned by the amount of snow in the surrounding peaks, but decided that there is really only one way to find out just how much snow is up there – by hiking right to it.

The drive to the trailhead was cut short by a 1/4 of a mile because of a washout. This washout became our first of many creek crossings. Most of the creeks were simple but a couple were knee deep and one was way too dangerous to ford, but luckily we found some fallen tree bridges downriver that we were able to use.

As we got closer to the lake we began seeing more and more snow. Soon we were hiking up through the forest over several feet of snow with no bare ground to be seen. We were prepared to camp on snow, but it’s just not that fun hanging around with cold wet feet and I’ve never had good luck with backcountry campfires on top of snow. Fortunately, right as we got to the lake there was just enough bare ground for our tents and a few huge flat boulders jutting out into the water that we could hang out on and enjoy the glorious view. It was heaven.