Russian Wilderness

Last weekend we headed out to the Russian Wilderness for a trip with Elaine and Ross. The Russian Wilderness is above the Trinity Alps and is only 23,000 acres. Its small but beautiful. I thought we could do the whole wilderness but we decided on just going to the Russian Lakes side. There are 5 lakes there and the trailhead is at 6500 elevation and Russian Lake is at 7100. All the books said it was a difficult hike but it wasn't bad. The trouble that we had was elevation...lungs and heart beating really hard. The hike up was beautiful and the views were incredible. Here is our journey!

Us at the Deacon Lee Trailhead...its our traditional picture

View of Thompson Peak the highest peak in the Trinity Alps

Views of the Trinity Alps

Our other tradition picture, Wilderness sign but there wasn't one so this will have to work this time

If you look close you can see the trail on the mountain. thats the Pacific Crest trail that goes from Canada to Mexico. I would like to travel on part of it. Ross told us a story of a girl who is 11 trying to do the whole trail this summer.

Beautiful brook trout caught with his fly rod! This was at Waterdog lake. I couldn't catch anything the first day.

Us in the tent waiting for the rain and hail to stop. Thunder clouds formed all day and then at 6 it started raining. It lasted one hour and then beautiful outside.

The view of Russian Lake after the rain stopped. Love the reflection

Scott fishing first thing in the morning. he caught one rainbow from this lake. the water was so clear at all the lakes that we could see the fish and then cast to it

Ross and Elaine told us about a hike they were going to do on Saturday morning and we were going to go with them but decided to sleep in. When we woke up they were on top of this peak.

Finally caught a fish...rainbow trout...I also caught a brook trout but I lost it before we could get a picture

Lower Russian Lake...we hiked down 500 feet. Thought Scott was crazy for wanting to go there but it was great. We made it down, fished, Scott got another brook trout, I got bites but thats it, had lunch and then decided to hike back up.

Its really hard to see but this is a picture from the lake. The trail was at the top of the ridge line. Great hike!

Me in the meadow at Lower Russian lake

Starting the hike up

A little higher up

View a little higher up

The hike was alot of rock climbing which was my favorite part of the whole trip

Almost there

Like the action pictures

After climbing up the trail we continued on to Siphon Lake which was a mile away. It was a great lake...the fishing was awesome. The size was small but they were biting...Scott used the fly rod and I used a panther martin lure. Some of the trout had blue backs, others looked like the tradition rainbow trouts

The top of the ridge was where Elaine and Ross hiked

Me with my catch

After getting back to camp, All four of us headed out to climb a mountain. Since the views were so incredible with the first climb Ross and Elaine did we knew we had to go on the next one. The hike wasn't that bad, actually was pretty easy. And the views were awesome!

Russian Peak elevation 8600

My favorite picture of the whole trip

View of the lake we camped at

After dinner we hiked around our lake to see the sunset

Another picture, we had an incredible time and are already planning our next trips. Elaine and Ross get to pick the next destination. The wildflowers were incredible too, if you want to see them check out Elaines blog at eellsmor.blogspot.com