Barney Lake being admired by W-01

Marmot 01 wakes up feeling a little better this morning and prepares a satisfying and complete breakfast, with kale and onion, eggs, potatoes, and turkey bacon. Today is the day the marmots do the much-anticipated hike to Duck Lake and the marmots will need all the good fuel they can get.

This is Marmot 01’s favorite hike. The marmots tested the elevation the day before, and now they feel confident Marmot 02 can scale this one too. The UV index today is the maximum—15. Marmot 02 doesn’t think she’s ever been outside when the UV index was so high. She even puts sunscreen on her face, which she almost never does since she always wears some variety of nature-themed ball cap when it is sunny.

The trailhead is only five miles from the condo and they are on the trail by 10:40am, early by their standards. Marmot 01 is dejected to find at the parking lot more people than she has ever seen on her trails by a factor of 10. Damn the internet and its free information—oh, and Cheryl Strayed. No trail is a secret anymore. The marmots will have to share. There are also locals on the trail, as evidenced by a bumper sticker that reads “Mammoth: Don’t feed our bears.”

The locals offer some words of wisdom

The trail begins at a steep climb, but not as steep as Gaylor Lakes. The marmots are feeling pretty good, better than the day before, and they make relatively good time up this forested part of the trail. First they pass Arrowhead Lake, then Skelton Lake soon after. The next big treat is Barney Lake. It is 2.5 miles in, and contains a small meadow and many patches of wildflowers growing in dirt between rocks.

Wildflowers at Barney Lake

Barney is very green and clear and appears rich in photos. Cookie and Gertie come out for picture time again as Marmot 01 enjoys lounging on her favorite Barney boulder.

Cookie and Gertie overlook Barney Lake

After a little relaxation at Barney, the marmots head up to Duck Lake, where Marmot 01 famously saw a marmot as a teenager, before she even knew what marmots were exactly, let alone that the marmot was her totem animal.

The climb from here is encompassed by only rocks. There will not be trees again until the marmots approach the lake. It is not hot but the sun exposure is brutal. Marmot 02 begins to feel her face turn hot though her body is a comfortable temperature. She applies more sunscreen but it doesn’t seem to protect from the poisonous quantity of sun. She continues to feel her face burn as they climb higher, walking across patches of snow.

Suddenly, she is distracted from her discomfort as Marmot 01 grabs her arm. “Look,” she whispers, “it’s a freaking pika!” How she sees the pika, Marmot 02 has no idea. It is the color of the rocks, and obscured in their shadows. The critter scampers away with a mouth full of grass to store in its den. The marmots wait and watch for a little bit and get some crappy photos as it surfaces once again further up the rocks. And the marmots believed that baloney about them being extinct from the region! Hah! Maybe the researchers who wrote that article needed the eagle-eye of Marmot 01, small-mammal enthusiast extraordinaire.

Pikas live in the rocks just above Barney Lake

As they finally approach Duck Lake in another 2.5 miles from Barney, Marmot 02 begs for shade. Her stomach is growling with hunger and she feels deficient in energy. In view of the lake, Marmot 01 enjoys a little solitude while Marmot 02 noms a pbj and half a Nugo bar while observing the bluest lake she has ever seen from under the shade of a squat, twisted tree. They are now at 10,800 feet.

Duck (Duk) Lake

The marmots have two choices from here—they can continue along the Duck Pass trail to get closer views of Duck Lake, or they can head down the trail to Pika Lake. Greedy as they are, the marmots are seduced by Pika Lake, which has such an evocative name—there must be more pikas there, right?

The trail down is steep, much like Gaylor Lakes from the day before. Marmot 02 begins to feel breathless and dizzy about a half mile down. She tells Marmot 01 she doesn’t think she can make it back up if they continue to head down. Marmot 02 agrees the trail down is horrendous and she wishes they would have stayed on the Duck trail. Only a few steps back up, Marmot 02 has to take a break. Then again another few steps. They take an extended break at a large boulder and get out Cookie and Gertie for photos of Duck Lake. Marmot 02 hopes it will distract her and make her feel better.

Cookie and Gertie at Duck Lake

She doesn’t begin to feel better. Her heart is pounding out of her chest. Although it seems impossible, she feels like she has a severe sunburn and decides she just needs to get to lower elevation and get out of the sun.

When they are about a quarter mile from the zenith Marmot 02 begins to feel like she is going to pass out. Her vision goes dark, her ears ring, her legs shake and she quickly crumples down onto a large rock to avoid losing consciousness. Eating had probably forced blood to her stomach that was needed for her other muscles.

If Marmot 02 can’t get herself back up the steep trail, the marmots will have to call for emergency help using their InReach locator beacon. But then they would be stuck waiting for help for many hours in low-oxygen conditions, which would be far from ideal.

Marmot 02 is conscious but feeling sick and depleted. She asks Marmot 01 if there is a deck of cards in the backpack so they could play until she feels capable of ascending again. Marmot 02 feels fuzzy-headed and wants to focus her brain on something other than her general sensation of illness. There is no deck of cards. They sit for a few more minutes then take a few more steps. They sit again. Marmot 02 picks up the backpack. Marmot 01 asks what she is looking for. “I forgot. Huh,” says Marmot 02. Then she remembers. “A deck of cards. I was looking for a deck of cards.” Marmot 01 is now officially concerned that Marmot 02 could have altitude sickness from the lack of oxygen—Marmot 02 had already asked if there was a deck of cards only minutes ago. There is increased urgency to descend the mountain. Marmot 01 quickly scouts ahead up the trail and shouts encouragingly back to Marmot 02, “I can see the sign for the turnoff we took down to Pika Lake—I think we can make it.” Once they reach the sign they are at the uppermost point and can drop to a lower elevation rapidly, as it is almost all downhill from there.

Dang, how much further to that Pika Lake Trail sign?

Tiny step by tiny step, Marmot 02 eventually ascends. She feels foggy, hot, and nauseated. From there the marmots head down without stopping to view their surroundings. They had planned to take most of their photos on the way back. Marmot 01 keeps talking to Marmot 02 to make sure she is reasonably coherent.

“If I see another pika, do you want me to stop and tell you?” says Marmot 01. “No, I just want to get to the car, that’s all I can think about,” replies Marmot 02. “Wow, you must really still feel sick.” Yep, she sure does. Even though it is all downhill, walking five more miles seems incomprehensible. By the time they return to Barney Lake, Marmot 02 is feeling about 50% back to normal, though still sick. Just then, you guessed it—Marmot 01 spots another pika. This time it is right in front of the marmots’ faces. She asks if Marmot 02 feels good enough for them to get a picture. “Sure, but make it fast,” she says. The pika gives the marmots a major gift, stopping to pose for some near-perfect pictures for about 30 seconds, about as long as Marmot 02 can stand to wait. The photos are blurry because the marmots hurry during their photography session, but they are clear enough to identify their subject.

Return of the Pikas! We have a second sighting.

Mere steps from the pikas are more marmots, seemingly coming out for an afternoon sunbath now that the trail is emptier of people.

The marmots talk about pikas and marmots virtually all the way back to the car. The pikas and marmots were the inspiration for the trip, and although Marmot 02 had to get sick to see them, the mission has been accomplished. Ironically, it seems that they wouldn’t have even had to get to Duck Lake to see the little buggers, had they just waited out the throngs of people at Barney.

It’s blurry but it is a marmot!

Back at the marmot ranch, Marmot 02 examines her face in the mirror. Not sunburned at all, though her head is still hot and throbbing and her body feels cold. Maybe altitude sickness feels a lot like a severe sunburn? Marmot 02 hopes to never test that out again—she’ll probably stay below 10k feet from now on. She is still nauseated, though less so now, and she eventually succumbs to Marmot 01’s dinner of kale with onion and a “pizza” made from a gluten-free spinach tortilla, pesto, mozzarella balls, and turkey pepperoni: yum. The marmots view their pika photos with both glee and disappointment as they realize they don’t have any perfect photos. They also look up another animal they had seen that appeared to be tiny baby yellow chipmunks. Turns out they weren’t baby chipmunks—they belonged to a species called the alpine chipmunk that is endemic to high elevation regions. They probably won’t be seeing any more of those anytime soon, either. May the next day be as lazy as possible.