Dutch Flat Lake Trip

One of the things we like to do with our kids is take them hiking. We love getting out of the city and into the mountains to enjoy the beauty and the peace and quite. Well last year we skipped out and didn't go hiking (we went fishing instead) so this year when we were coming home from camping at Anthony Lakes we saw a sign for Dutch Flat Lake. So we kind of talked about it, or actually I decided that Dutch Flat was going to be our destination for Labor Day weekend. Now we don't camp over Labor Day because it is too busy with other people camping, so we just do a day trip. I had kind of mapped out where we were going and kind of figured we would be going on about a 6 mile hike round trip.
So on Saturday morning we loaded up and left at 7:00 am. It is a 2 hour drive to the trailhead from home and we wanted to get a fairly early start so we left early. We arrived at the trailhead right at 9:00 am, and let me tell you it was COLD. So we gathered all our gear and got going. We hadn't gone very far and Kylee pointed out that there was frost all over the open meadow as we walked by, well that didn't help our situation because Ben, being the smart one he is, decided to wear shorts and he was freezing. He kept asking me to let him put his hands in my pockets because they were so cold they were going to get frostbite. You would have thought he was going to die the way he kept whining. About an hour into our hike we hit the sun and let me tell you I had one happy little boy. We stopped at our cache along the way to check on it and take a little snack break.
After our nice little stop the sun was shining on us and the complaining about being cold soon went away and we were really enjoying the hike and the beautiful scenery and before long we were at the top of the hill. It was fun talking to the kids and showing them where we had climbed a hill/mountain a few years earlier trying to find a cache, we got to within 28 feet of the cache and we were too scared to walk across the little ledge to get it, so we ended up going back down without the cache. Anyway back to our hike, as we started coming down the other side we could see a little lake at the bottom and that is where we figured we were going, but then a little farther down the trail we were able to look off the other side of the mountain and guess what...we found the actual lake we would be hiking to. So now we were starting to get excited because we could see it and knew we were getting close to the reward and to top it off, it was all downhill into the lake.
After a 3 hour hike we finally arrived at the lake and it was beautiful, there were fish jumping and there was no one else around, it was just us. So what do we do, we grab our poles and start fishing. Ben wasn't to worried about fishing, he spent his time catching tadpoles and frogs, but the rest of us wanted to fish. Jaime and I were the only ones lucky enough to catch some and they were so pretty, I really love catching Brook trout because they have such a pretty color to them. After hanging out at the lake for 2 hours we decided we better start heading out, it was 2:30 and we figured we had about another 3 hour hike getting out. So we cleaned up, Jaime cleaned the fish, I took a few pictures and we headed back up the hill/mountain.
This is where the fun really started, they kids were already exhausted from hiking in and then playing at the lake and now we are telling them we have to start hiking out. So of course the whining starts (Ben and Brooke), only this time the complaining is about the heat and then of course the backpacks that are too heavy. So we took a couple of breaks on the way up the hill and I kept telling them that once we get to the top it would all be downhill. Well I only told a little lie, I knew that once we got to the top of the hill out of dutch flat that we had probably another mile of climbing on the other trail to get to the top. So once we hit the top of the dutch flat hill we took a little break and then we had to take a couple more breaks before we hit the top of the main trail and somewhere in those breaks I ended up with Brooke's backpack. Once we hit the top of that last hill and it was all downhill the kids were thrilled, they were moving at a faster pace and the whining changed from too hot and heavy, to my feet hurt and are we almost to the car yet. We got back to the car around 5:20 pm and let me tell you we were tired. We hopped in the car and finished driving up to Anthony Lake to have our little picnic and do a little more fishing.
Now I told you I had mapped out this hike to be about 6 miles round trip, well....I was just a little off, it ended up being 8.5 miles which is the longest hike we have ever taken our kids on and which is the longest I have ever been on. We were all very sore when we got home, Jaime had a hard time walking to get the mail, his Dad said he looked like an old man walking to the mail box. Our calves are still very sore and so are our shoulders, but I would do it again in a heartbeat, you come out of there with a feeling of accomplishment and that is always a great feeling. I was very proud of our kids for doing so well. I also now know there are some other lakes up there that I didn't know about, so I'm already trying to con someone into going back up there next year...right now I'm not so sure anyone wants to go with me. But on the up side the kids did say that they would like to backpack into dutch flat and stay the night, so maybe in a couple of years we might have to try that!!
Okay so you know I took pictures and instead of trying to place them in the story, I'm just going to put them all down here at the end.

Headed out, it was a cold morning.

Sneaking a snack!!

Picture break.

Found the cache.

Relaxing at the cache, I really love the view from this area.

Another view from near the cache.

The hill we climbed a few years ago trying to find a cache. It was pretty scary on top and coming down was scary.

We thought this was dutch flat, but we were wrong.

Another picture break.

We made it to the lake.

My fish, isn't it pretty???

Kylee and Ben, that big hill behind them was where we came from and had to go back too.

Another one.

All three of them at the lake.

A view hiking out of dutch flat.

Another view a little higher up.