Friday night our not so small ward got together to do an overnight backpacking trip to the Unitas. Almost 40 people showed up. We headed up to Kamas and made our way onto Mirror Lake Highway to the Crystal Lake Trailhead. Besides a few slow hikers and a couple people who decided to order a pizza before we left (at least they didn't try hiking in with it) we all made it to our destination, Island Lake.
The 3 mile hike is moderate with a 30lb backpack. I would describe it as a rolling hills type of hike. No hill was ever too long, but what goes down also goes up. The last 0.5 mile is what some consider to be the hardest part. It is a slow hill climb up to the lake. What makes it less difficult are the long switchbacks.
The major problem with a large group is that everyone has different hiking levels and the group will naturally get spread out. This was probably exaggerated Friday night by said slow/pizza hikers. As the leader I made sure everyone made it to the lake where I discovered we had set up camp outside a campsite and were upsetting our camp neighbors. Unfortunately, I had to a little bit of a bad guy and ask everyone to move, but overall I think we ended up in a better location.
It was a lovely evening and we were exceptionally lucky to have a meteor shower that weekend. The next morning before hiking out a few brave souls jumped the nearly 30ft cliff into the cold mountain lake water.
A trip to the Unitas wouldn't be complete without a stop at Dick's drive-in in Kamas. It is an Unitas tradition. I love me some onion rings.
The trip was a success even with angry scout leaders, moving camp at 11pm and Bishop getting lost on the trail (don't worry he got there, just after hiking an extra few miles).
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