Partners: Deez, Landen and Ketchum.
Objective: Fun and easy backpacking.
Stats: 8.6 miles round trip with 700ft gain. Strava.
Gear notes: Bug spray.
We wanted to get out for a quick and easy overnight hike, something close to town and without a lot of elevation gain, so I decided to check out the Stanley Creek trail towards Bridal Veil Falls. We left the Stanley Lake trail head at 3:30. A little late in the day but we wouldn't be hiking too far. It was definitely warm and there were a lot of cars at the parking lot, but most of them were headed out.
The section of the trail close to the lake affords wonder views of McGown Peak.
I knew we didn't need to make fast time getting anywhere, but the open and unshaded areas weer pretty warm and reason enough to move quick.
The open views of the meadow were quite fantastic though.
Soon we entered the trees as the trail followed the creek. The shade was nice and there wasn't too much climbing involved, although I was reminded several times that I promised "not a lot of gain".
We skipped the side trail to Lady Face Falls and soon found a wide but shallow crossing of Stanley Creek. We kept our eyes out for a camp site and eventually found one just north of the cutoff for Bridal Veil Falls. The weather was pleasant but a little buggy, so soon we retired to the tent for a back country Uno tournament.
We were up early the next morning, mainly because I knew there would be a ton of people on the tril very soon. We had loosely planned on going up to the waterfall, but decided breakfast in Stanley sounded more fun. The hike out was uneventful, other than the very cold creek crossing.
As was expected, every Tom, Dick and Harriet with their extended family and 15 dogs were on the trail and we were glad we got back early. An easy trip indeed!
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