East Pit Lake

In early September, I hauled my boat down to East Pit Lake. Access to East Pit requires carrying the boat over 1000 feet from the parking lot with a pretty significant elevation change, so generally I end up going here on my own with my kayak riding on my head.

The upside of East Pit is that the water quality is almost always good (a tough thing to find at the end of a hot summer) and the carry deters most paddlers.

The muddy shore launch is fine. There were a lot of folks fishing (it was the Saturday night of a long weekend) and even a few folks on the water, which is unusual. Most cleared out by about 6 pm.

The lake was calm (it sits about 100 feet below the surrounding land) with just enough breeze to help cut the heat.

There were lots of ducks, plus two osprey fishing, and these two making a lot of noise in a nesting box (maybe eagles--it was too far away to tell).

I did two laps in about 90 minutes and there were a lot of fish jumping.

The climb back out is always a chore. The canoeists in the picture below took a lot of breaks getting up the hill.

I managed to make it up the hill in one go...

...And then down the other side to the parking lot. The trail from the crest to the parking lot has had a bit of wear since I was last here and required more attention to footing (roots and terraces, mostly). I wore my runners for the walk and changed into and out of my water shoes by the shore.

Overall, a lovely trip if you're up for the carry. Inflatables--which is what most people were using--really come into their own here.