29th July 2007
Assault on Rim Lake
Rim Lake lies at the southern end of Boulder Mountain Top at an altitude of 10,853 feet, ever since I first discovered it a couple of years ago I've wanted to hike round it. Two weeks ago I set off to do that but took the wrong road and was then chased off the mountain by a thunderstorm. Since then pretty much every day has been stormy, this morning while sitting listening to the cricket commentary on the internet I noticed that there wasn't a cloud in the sky.
I quickly martialed the camera gear, riding gear, hiking gear and some lunch and headed out on the KLR. The KLR is a better bike for this kind of expedition than the CRF, the roads are not technical, it has carrying capacity and is much more comfortable with it's soft seat and saggy suspension. OK, so the lights don't work...
I blasted up the hill barely stopping, there were a few clouds forming but nothing threatening.
Until I reached the lake, the only place on the whole Aquarias Plateau with a storm was Rim Lake.
© Bob Palin 2007
As soon as I arrived it started to rain, then hail, pretty soon the hail didn't melt when it hit the track.
© Bob Palin 2007
I took shelter under some trees, there were terrific thunderclaps and some impressive lightning. I know you're not supposed to hide under a tree in a storm but really, is it better to be surrounded by trees or exposed on the mountain top? It felt better under the trees, besides the hail hurt.
It looked to me that the storm was moving off south but every time it stopped hailing for a few minutes the storm moved back overhead and it started again. I waited about an hour, ate my lunch and wandered around in the trees, eventually I concluded that the storm wasn't going to move off and in fact more clouds were forming to my north which was my exit route so I headed out.
The road had become quite wet
© Bob Palin 2007
Looking back from Spectacle Lake to the storm over Rim Lake
© Bob Palin 2007
Clouds were forming fast so I headed down off the top but I didn't want to just go home (India were outplaying England in the Test Match) so I headed a little further west along some trails I hadn't taken before.
Looking back at the Top from Dark Valley
© Bob Palin 2007
My nemesis, a loose slope with a turn, the KLR is lurking in the trees on the left.
© Bob Palin 2007
I got permission from the little man in my head to make an attempt at this hill, it wasn't too steep or loose, but first he wanted me to look over the top as we didn't know where we were or where the road went.
On cresting the rise I found this
© Bob Palin 2007
Having had enough of that for the day I turned round and wandered on in a friendlier direction for a bit without attempting the hill, but all the while the clouds were surrounding me. After an hour or so I headed for home, mission not accomplished, but hey, any day on a bike...
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