Seven Lakes Trail

Seven Lakes Trail was a ride another friend had told me about, so we wanted to check it out.  It was a very pretty drive through the timber, winding to a ridge just below Union Peak, where we could see Lake of the Woods from above, as well as some other small lakes and ponds. 

A little further down the trail, we had to make a decision about whether to continue or turn around.  After some discussion we decided to go to the next ridge; maybe we would be able to see little more of the Seven Lakes area. 

 To do this, we had to cross the river, and the terrain on either side had some big rocks to navigate through and over.  It was pretty rough, and I wasn’t sure Jo would want to go for it.  But, she wanted to give it a try, so we bounced and twisted through the terrain.  I was thinking, “This better be worth it!”  When we got to the place where we agreed to stop, I said to the gals, “This is far enough for me.”  They agreed. We were riding down into a valley, so the view was getting more limited, and the trail was getting rough.  Ahead we saw a pond; behind it was a mountain with a glacier on the north slope.  Pretty view.  Good spot for a group shot.  Now we had to figure out how to work the timers on our cameras.  It took a few tries.  Mine worked.  Julie’s worked.  Jo’s…not so much.  We propped the cameras on the camouflage pack attached to the back of my 4-wheeler and snapped a few pics.  Just dandy! 

The finger glaciers are on the left side of the picture on the side of the mountain.

Jo, Julie, and me near Union Peak.

We had just started packing up to leave when we saw 5 guys on 4-wheelers coming up the trail toward us.  When they got to the point where they were passing by us, we recognized the guy in the lead, and he recognized us, so he stopped and visited for a few minutes.  He told us that they had just been to Glacier Lake (about 5 miles further, just below the glacier we were admiring) and had caught 3 fish.  He said it was a pretty rough trail getting in there, but it’s a beautiful spot.  

So, now we know what’s up ahead…maybe we’ll explore that another time…

Although it took us a little longer, we followed them out, and returned to the same parking lot to load up and head home.  We stopped in Dubois for dinner.  A big ol’ hamburger and an ice-cold drink at the Cowboy Café is hard to beat after a hot, dusty, 44 mile ride on Union Pass.