Total Distance: 18km

.: Click to enlarge map :.

September 10th - Day 1
Start: Eastern Pines Parking Lot | End: Stratton Lake
Distance Covered: 3.5km

Comments: We entered the park early this morning so we could do the Baron Canyon trail on the way in and still get a relatively early start on the backpacking trail. Since we had four days planned for the trip we decided to spend the first night on Stratton lake to enjoy a site on the water. Today's hiking was easy with the exception of the massive hill just after Johnston Lake where the trail splits south - although we couldn't see much through the trees from the so called "lookout" point it definitely had the altitude for one. The backpacking sites on Stratton lake are grouped together such that you can walk between the sites but are still far enough apart that you can't see / hear the next site. We also noticed that these sites weren't visibly marked from the water as to discourage use from canoe travelers. We had the pick over all the sites and chose the best one with swimming access.

Campsite (Stratton Lake)	Ankles beware!

Day 2
Start: Stratton Lake | End: Stratton Lake (High Falls sites)
Distance Covered: 4.5km

Comments: Quick early morning swim before we left for the Stratton lake backpacking sites up near High falls. This section of the trail seemed much longer even though there were big climbs, perhaps it was because we knew what we were in store for when we got there. We arrived to find the sites were paired together with a fair distance between the pairs, we decided to split up as to find the best site. The two southern sites were very small with only the ground to sit on and the remaining two weren't much better. Of the four sites we settled for the one with an open grassy area, sheltered tent area, water access, and the best benches around the fire. By the time we had set up camp it was almost noon and we were already seeing canoes paddling towards High falls. The hike into the actual High falls area was fairly rough travel due to the big rocks which you had to climb over - easily passable but don't plan on bringing the big cooler. Once arrived we claimed one of the pools for ourselves and got ourselves organized to spend the day. The water rushing down the main chute was lower than we experienced last year but was still too strong to stand in so the ride down was great! Once several other parties arrived we retreated to our little area for lunch and to lazy around in the bubbling whirl pools. We noticed the other parties packing up for the lengthy paddle back to camp at around 5:30pm. Having only a 15 minute walk to camp and packed lunch & dinner with us we were left with the entire place to ourselves for the rest of the evening!

BEWARE! Only the chute in the main pool is smooth enough to slide down, the others although look safe they have submerged rocks and holes and are an invitation for injury. Trust me, ouch..

More rocky trail	This must be the place	View overlooking the upper pools	Main pool with water chute
	Lower bubble pools	Our view for the day
	High Falls Panoramic

Day 3
Distance Covered: 2km (High Falls and back)

Comments: While I was exploring the previous day at High Falls, I noticed a flat cleared area at the bottom of the Falls that looked like someone had arranged a circle of stones to make a fire pit . Today we decided we were going to take a closer look and spend the day if it was nice. The view from the bottom turned out better than expected and we unpacked for the day. While the current was strong and fun to play in, a section of the upper water fall caught my eye because it looked hollow behind it. I managed to make my way up to it, from the foot prints I wasn't alone, and was actually able to sit behind the waterfall in the hollow space! Like the previous day we had packed food for the entire day and were able to move up to the water chute later in the evening and have the entire place to ourselves again. We also took the time to play in the upper pools where there is deep moving water and a 12 foot high rock platform to jump off into it.

On the walk back tonight we began to notice the clouds on the horizon gradually darken and the wind pick up - bad weather rolling in. By the time we got back to camp and put two tarps up it was already raining lightly. The wind picked up to the point where trees were swaying heavily and we could hear them snapping in the forest around us. I was standing alone under the tarp while everyone else was stuffing their things in bags when I heard crashing in the bushes moving towards me. Out of the forest appears a full grown male moose with full rack of antlers running wildly away from the sounds of snapping trees! The massive animal saw me from roughly 18 feet away and threw on the brakes, we both stood there making eye contact for several seconds before it turned its head and disappeared. By the time everyone else had come over to see what all the commotion was about the moose was gone. Minutes later a massive thunder/lightning storm was right overhead and rocked the forest around us violently for half an hour. The lightning was very intense and the thunder was the loudest we'd ever heard in a tent. There was a brief 15 minute period of calmer rain and then another intense thunder/lightning cell that lasted much longer than the first before dissipating and tapering off to rain all night.

Morning mist on Stratton Lake (High Falls Sites)	High Falls	Behind the falls	Water chute in main pool
	He actually liked doing this	The calm before the storm (High Falls site)

Day 4
Start: Stratton Lake (High Falls sites) | End: Bucholtz Lake
Distance Covered: 3km

Comments: We had been thinking about heading up to High Falls for the morning but decided against it because of how tired we'd been the previous two days. Wise decision because the next part of the trail winds through the glacial boulder gardens and travel is very slow due to the huge rocks. The rocks themselves were in incredible shapes and sizes with some as large as a living room seeming placed at random in the forest. During the hike we noticed a few large branches and tree snapped and on the trail confirming the sounds we heard last night. The site on Bucholtz Lake is the only site up in the entire lake and is set into the boulders with lake front access. The lake is very weedy in the camp area making swimming impossible and pumping water challenging but the site possesses a very magical feeling nevertheless.

Glacial Boulder Gardens	Following the winding trail	Bucholtz Lake

Day 5
Start: Bucholtz Lake | End: Eastern Pines Parking Lot
Distance Covered: 5.5km

Comments: We were up early as today was our last day and we had quite a walk to the car ahead of us. The weather was very calm today and we were treated to a pretty sun rise on a misty lake as we packed up camp and ate breakfast. The walk out was nothing like anything I'd ever experienced before, the remaining section of trail was hit extremely hard by the storms causing downed trees/branches to be a real problem for us. There were many areas were multiple trees, sometimes numbering in the dozens, fell over the trail completely making it impossible to pass or even see the trail. To make matters worse the trail is marked by tree tags and it seemed like those trees were always part of the broken mess further hindering navigation. We climbed over, through, along, and under trees from the camp site all the way to the parking lot - around ever bend were more broken trees. Tired from all our tree climbing we reached the parking lot and the adventure felt abruptly over. Another amazing Achray experience for the books.

Sun rise (Bucholtz Lake)	What a mess!