Lindeman Lake

This weekend brought a pretty cool first — it was the first time we tried an overnight hike. We had finally acquired most of the gear we needed, and between the two of us we felt we were well-enough equipped to give it a (short) go.

Recently I had the idea to start an adventure notebook to keep track of all the things my brain would inevitably forget as I got older, and this was the first adventure I brought the notebook along for. It proved to be a relaxing and enjoyable experience, and a lesson in flexibility for me (a stickler for consistent formatting and symmetry).

Day 1

We started our day quite late, getting on the road just after 2pm after wandering around Khatsahlano for a few hours. The hike up to the Lindeman Lake was short (only about 45 minutes), but we quickly learned that hiking with full camping gear on your back is a completely different ballgame than simply hiking with a day pack. Balance couldn’t be taken for granted, and although the hike is not highly technical, it requires some finesse to navigate low branches, large boulders, and gnarled roots.

After plenty of starts and stops, we finally made it to the lake and quickly set up camp on the last available camping pad. We spent some time exploring the trail around the gorgeous glacial-blue waters of Lindeman, and anxiously anticipated the next day’s hike to Greendrop Lake, another 4km up the trail.

We thought it might be kind of fun to catch our own dinner in the lake. Neither of us had much experience freshwater fishing, so we packed some rods and fishing tackle with us. We struggled for a while with the rods, line, and lures, but finally managed to cast our lines just as a light rain set in.

We weren’t having any luck catching our dinner, so we went to our backup plan: dehydrated Southwest Chicken Masa. By some miracle (and a little bit of paper ripped from my adventure notebook) I was able to light a very brief fire, and we enjoyed our first dehydrated meal around it as the sun went down (along with some curious and hungry mice that seemed to hang around and pick up any food inadvertently dropped.

Day 2

The next morning we got up early and enjoyed some coffee by the lakeside. We were forced to scrap our Greendrop Lake hike due to an injury flare-up, but the relaxing vibes by the relatively secluded lake as we enjoyed our coffee and breakfast were more than satisfying enough for the both of us, and we hiked back down to the car.