The hikes are getting easier by the week. This one was a piece of cake, partially because it is a stock trail and partially because we are getting stronger.

Unfortunately, this hike was also a bummer in some ways. We passed by Squaw Lake on the way up and it is very pretty, but also was the scene of the worst camp fire desecration I've ever seen. I stopped doing Alpine Lakes hikes a long time ago because of the crowds and the constant reminders of how stupid and destructive people can be.

Live trees don't burn for shit, so don't chop then down and try to burn them. When the signs say campfires are prohibited, does it mean you can go ahead and burn things as long as you are trying to start a forest fire? Bigger is not always better.

This hike was both ying and yang. We ran into several interesting parties of hikers and had a good time talking to them. We also got dorked out of a good campsite by a passive aggressive "southbound PCTer" who ignored the fact that our stuff was already there. It was either kill him or find another spot, so we did the latter. We ended up in a very nice place.

During the night, there were moments of loud thudding sounds. I guessed they were deer walking on some of the hollow boggy sections around us, but it was hard to tell because Lisa was thrashing in her sleeping bag so much I couldn't hear well. I found out later she was doing it on purpose because the noises were scaring her and she didn't want to hear them.

One of the more annoying things about this hike: from the top of Cathedral Pass, Deep Lake is about 1/2 mile away and about 1200 feet down, but, being a "horse" trail, it takes almost three miles to get to the lake after you first sight it. Horse trails have very flat switchbacks which just encourage people and horses to cut them. I never cut switchbacks, but this trail severely tempted me.

The Lake itself is beautiful, but very over-used. Even though there are multiple signs telling stock (horse) campers to camp elsewhere, most of the campsites have horse prints and horse shit all over them.

There are multitudes of ground squirrels and Clark's Nutcrackers, so your food is imperiled if you aren't careful, otherwise it was mostly a bug-free and enjoyable hike.