Peach, Pear and a Topping September 11 - 13, 2007

I have always wanted to do this hike because the lakes sounded pretty and, well, I like the title. We decided to start at the Top Lake trail head up the Little Wenatchee road (not far from the trail head to Heather Lake). The guide book describes the hike from the Fortune Ponds trail head but, we wanted to start higher. We liked the fact that you could get up to a ridge fairly quickly. We guessed that it was about 2 1/2 miles to the ridge. From there it was probably another 1 1/2 miles to Top Lake. This is a pretty little grassy lake but, a little small. So, we headed over to Pear Lake to camp (about another mile). Pear Lake is beautiful and I was looking forward to catching some fish. Alas, there seemed to be no fish in the lake. The whole time we were camped there we never saw a single fish nor did we see any signs of fish biting. That was a little disappointing but, oh well.

The next day I tried fishing the lake anyway but, of course, I had no luck. So, we decided to head over to Peach Lake. Dave thought the trail to Peach Lake traversed this ridge that separated the two lakes but, there were steep cliffs everywhere we went. I thought we should drop down to the valley below Pear Lake. Then, hike over to Grass lake and from there up to Peach Lake. Dave was quite sure the trail description in the book did not say we went anywhere near grass lake and he didn't want to drop down that far. Later, we checked the book again and it does say you go by Grass lake to get to Peach Lake. Anyway, we spent most of the day trying to find a way around these cliffs without dropping lower than Pear Lake. This included climbing up steep terrain, over slippery pine needles, at times, using heather to pull our way up to the ridge top, only to find sheer cliffs on all three of the other sides and no way down except back the way we came. We finally gave up and went back to our camp.

I tried fishing on the other side of Pear Lake just to kill time while Dave continued on the PCT to the next pass. I gave up fishing pretty quickly as there was absolutely no action. I decided to try climbing straight up the ridge from this other end of the lake. It was a much shorter route but, actually steeper than I expected. It was rather hair-raising and I was taking deep breaths to calm my nerves as I continued up.:-) At one point very near the top, I found a ski pole that someone had left behind. I thought to myself, "Why would someone leave a perfectly good ski pole behind like this unless, they dropped it and were to scared to go after it, or it had become a hindrance to climbing and they decided they'd rather leave it than die." That's when I decided maybe it wasn't such a good idea to climb up here when Dave had no idea where I had gone. If I got hurt, he might never find me. It was pretty sketchy, I admit. On the other hand, I did get to use a number of rock climbing maneuvers.:-) I decided to head back down without reaching the top. I brought the ski pole down with me because I didn't want to leave it there. But, I had to keep tossing it down in front of me while I worked my way down because I could not hold on to it and climb down at the same time. That was an indication of just how steep it was.

Back down at the lake, I had to scramble over a boulder field that brought me close to the lake shore. That's when I noticed these cat tracks in the sand all along the beach. They looked to be bob cat size. So, then I started thinking, "Hmmm, I wonder if I look like a good meal? There is a cave right above me that is the perfect place for a cat. He's probably looking down at me right now." That's when I decided it was time to head back to camp. At that point I could hear Dave's ham radio so I knew he was back.

My worries were all for not though. It's funny what one will think about when one is all alone. We never did see the cat. We did see a lot of pika though. That's probably what the cat was hunting.