Day three was an off-trail adventure. With camp already set up and no need to move, the plan was to head south, cross Sherwin Creek, scramble up through a boulder field, and see what was on the other side. No trail map for this one. Just curiosity and a vague sense of direction.
The first obstacle was Sherwin Creek, which we crossed on a few downed tree trunks. From there, the terrain opened up into a massive boulder field. The scale is hard to capture in photos. These are big rocks, and scrambling through them was equal parts workout and playground.
Just past the boulder field, we immediately gained several hundred feet of elevation. "Trail" is a generous term for what we were on. It was more like a narrow animal track going straight up the side of the hill.
We spent a good amount of time tooling around up top, poking into every corner we could find. We climbed into a boulder bowl just to make sure we weren't missing anything, stopped at the last visible patch of snow because of course we did, and looked for signs of native peoples in the rock formations. Once we were satisfied that we'd seen everything worth seeing, we headed north and downhill toward a smaller, unnamed lake sitting just below Sherwin Lakes.
The unnamed lake was another gem. Scenic, full of fish, and completely empty. We washed up, cast a few lines, and someone found a warm rock for a nap. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon in the backcountry. There might not be better ones either.
We made our way back to camp with Bloody Mountain glowing to the south and the kind of tired that only comes from a full day of off-trail hiking. One last group photo before the light faded. Someone definitely farted.
