yes that is a vulture bottom right
Lots of snow plants on the way out.
Lots of burned area to walk through the entire way out there. All in all the trail was in fairly good condition though it was a little brushy in a few areas.
Set the camera up while I grabbed some lunch a few miles from lake
(Click image for time lapse video)
Instead of crossing over the creek I decided to climb up on the left side and follow the Granite down to the lake
Made it to Kibbie a little after 1 and began searching around for where to camp at
I ended up heading all the way to the north side of the lake before I found anything like I liked. Ended up camping next to the sachse spring fed creek up a few hundred yards from the lake on some granite
Not to shabby of a campsite. Though it did take far long to find a place I liked then I thought it would
Was nice listening to the rather loud Cascades at night
Was pretty cloudy and overcast most of the time I was out there so the sunset wasn't anything spectacular but I did take a little time lapse of it anyway
(Again click image for the video)
The next morning after packing up camp I took a little hike up to the top of the ridge of the north side of the lake
Finally got a decent picture of the Bald Eagle that had been around the area while I was out there
Took a bit of time lapse of the clouds while up there and then grabbed my pack and started back out to the car.
Heres the time lapse I took, click the image to get see the video.
Nothing else of interest happened on the way back to the car so thats where my trip report ends. I do have a question or 2 for those of you who frequent the area. I know kibbie is a very popular backpacking destination so much so that the've had to initiate a quota and ban fires but other then it being fairly close I didn't really see the appeal. Don't get me wrong the lake is very pretty and I absolutely love the area around it and I didn't even run in to anyone while out there but it just seems to me that its far to brushy and overgrown to really be enjoyable. Getting around the West side of the lake to that river took me a couple of hours because I had to cross what must have been a few hundred fallen logs from the various fires in the area. On the way out to the lake there were a number of logs across the trail as well as some points where brush had overgrown badly enough that you could see people were very obviously having to leave the trail and push through brush and downed trees just to move forward. All I explored of kibbie was the west and north west sides of the lake so I can speak for the other sides but from what I did explore just getting down to the water was a task. Small manzanita, downed logs, dead ferns, and plenty of other debris from fires and such made a pretty good wall around most of the shoreline I checked out. Because I hammock camp and was solo I was able to setup basically where I wanted to but I am curious about where you guys go when your tenting with any sized group?
From my explorations it seems to me that Kibbie needs a good deal of upkeep done to it. Now I understand the whole Leave No Trace thing and completely agree with it but a certain amount of upkeep does need to be done to the area to make in enjoyable for people especially after storms, drought and multiple fires have gone through the area. Anyway, all the brush, hard travel, and limited campsites kinda caught me by surprise because I know how popular a destination that lake is. Kibbie has already been filling up the quota each weekend since it opened a few weeks ago so I know people have been out there pretty regular.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/2016 02:10PM by randomsteve95370.
