A Night Near Bald Mountain (apologies to Mussorgsky)

A nice little backpacking trip to the Uintas just before the end of summer was the setting for a ton of fun for David, Laura, Sam and myself. We hiked in to Clyde Lake where we set up a base camp just below timberline. We hiked past Crystal Lake, Lily Lake, Cliff Lake and Watson Lakes before we got there just as the sun was going down. It looked like rain, so there was no time to fish that night. I got up early because I heard the clop clop clop if hooves on bare rock. I thought it might have been the mountain goats that frequent the area, but it was only a herd of deer. Still, the early morning walk before everyone got up took me to all three of the Three Divide Lakes. These spring-fed lakes sit on top of the ridge with one of them draining to the Weber River and the other two going to the Provo River.

 Laura was really stylin' in her father's coat. It seems that her dad said "Pack some clothes" but he forgot to say "warm clothes". Since it froze, it was a good thing her father (Scoutmaster) was prepared. Somehow she slept the whole night through and never heard the thunder and lightning or the hail that pelted her tent.

 Sam was able to enjoy fishing on Clyde when it wasn't raining. Once he got his gear set up, he was off and catching fish. He only popped one bubble, which was fortuitous since I only brought two. One for me - and one for him.

 We hiked over to the Big and Little Twin Lakes and walked over to the cliff edge to take a look at Wall Lake and Trial Lake from our lookout near the notch in Notch Mountain.  Sam had lots of luck fishing, but it wasn't until we got to the Little Twin that he got one big enough for lunch. Sam fell in love with this guy and just had to re-enact the family kiss-pose.

We both caught these fish at the same time. We took them back to camp and fried them up in bacon grease and picked the bones clean. Sam though his fish tasted like salmon and my little brookie tasted like filet mignon (maybe it was the other way around). It just goes to prove the old Chinese proverb that "everything tastes better in bacon grease" - especially when you are having the time of your life in God's country.