Well Worth a Sprinkle, or Two

De Rouex Creek, 7/5/08, 8.2 miles,

4th of July weekend and wee had 3 days to play, but with snow still hanging out in all of primary choices on the westside of the mountains we decided that heading east would be the better of the bargain. There are a couple of trails in the Teanaway we wanted to explore and with a base camp somewhere along the river, we could easily head to each.

First on the list was DeRouex Creek. I had been up this trail previously with the Mountaineer's Naturalist Class and wanted to head further into the mountains than the naturalists had gotten. With spotty clouds overhead Michael, Zillah and I crossed the North Fork of the Teanaway and started out on the day's adventure. Almost immediately the wildflowers lined the trail - Lomatium, Jeffrey's Shooting Star, Red Columbine, Vanilla Leaf and Violets.

As we climbed higher, we came across Penstemon, Arnica, Liuna, and Asters in greaterr abundance. And then the trees opened up to meadow with more Shooting Stars and our first Avalanche Lilies, but the clouds that had been building throughout the morning started to let loose in spurts. We were prepared and threw on our rain coats before continuing on up to Gallagher Head Lake. Along the way we saw more Columbine, Arnica, Shooting Stars, Lupine and Avalanche Lilies.

There were only a few people at the lake when we reached its shores and clouds obscured the peaks enough that all we got were teasing glimpses of what stood beyond. However, there is an old jeep road leading up to the lake and some 4-wheelers had played too often and too close to the shore and deep ruts had been created and left for the rest of the world to look upon in disgust.