George Lake

Since I went to George Lake a couple of years ago, I had been trying to talk the family into returning with me. Given the difficulty of the hike, they were not all incredibly excited about it. Finally, we got a favorable forecast and Jacqueline agreed to make the trek. We drove up 242 to the PCT trailhead and began our hike. I expected a lot of PCT hikers on this day as mid-August is prime time for hikers in this area. It was actually pretty quiet in the morning though. The trail took us up through the two islands amongst the lava and then it was nothing but lava hiking for a couple of miles. Just an uphill slog without any tree cover and little baseball size rocks to step upon. We knew that a twisted ankle was likely with these conditions. We continued on up until we got to the junction with the Little Belknap Trail.

There was some disagreement amongst the crew, mainly from Jacqueline, but in the end we all took the short detour to the top. Zyla led the way and she scrambled her way to the summit. There was another person there, but he quickly left when our family of four made it to the top. We took some photos and enjoyed the view. Little Belknap is the place where most of the lava came from to make this big lava flow and there were places were you could see the fissures creating the lava tubes where the flow occurs. We did not stay long on top and we were quickly down the mountain and back on the trail. Here the trail leveled out and went into some trees for a bit before descending down into more lava flow. This we followed until we got to the very bottom of the lava flow.

We turned off the trail and started our cross country hiking. This required us to climb over some downed trees and loose soil. Last time I was here I made the mistake of going too far west. This time I made the mistake of going too far east. We did not have as steep of climbing, but we ended up adding an extra half mile or so to the hike. This made Jacqueline a little grumpy, but the rest of the family kept a good attitude, so we were happy when we finally made it to the lake. Here was the problem, though. The hiking was great on this day as we had cool weather and even a nice wind. I was hoping it would all disappear when we hit the lake, but when we got there, it was still cool. This lake was so amazingly clear and cool last time on a hot day. 

Now we would have to deal with a cool lake on a cool day. Still, I had prepared for an enjoyable lake day. I sat in my chair and blew up the cheap inner tube that I had brought. Everyone, except Jacqueline took it for a spin. It was actually pretty nice, but the wind was so strong it kept blowing us back into shore. The kids were troopers though as it took some guts to get out there on the lake. If we were lucky, the air temperature was somewhere in the low 60s with wind. It took a lot for me to jump completely in, but I had to make the best of it. Still it was enjoyable nonetheless, but we had to deflate the floaty and get back to the normal trail. It was making Jacqueline nervous to be so far away from the main drag.

I decided to take a more direct route back and it worked out pretty good. We were back on the trail in no time. On the way back we ran into a lot of PCT hikers. This is a common place for people to get off the trail and go to Bend, so many of them have to find a way back up in the afternoon. They were all cordial to us as they passed on by. I wished I would have brought something for them to hand out, but maybe next time. We made it back to the car a little bit after four. It wasn't quite the day that I was hoping for as I enjoyed swimming in George Lake so much the first time that I had been there that I hoped everyone could. Still we did our best to make it to this beautiful lake right under Mt. Washington and even got a 12 mile hike in because of it. Not a bad way to spend a day off.