Hutch's Pool December 21, 2008

Three years ago, we hiked to what we thought was Hutch's Pool. It didn't look much like the photos we'd seen, but we figured it had either been burned out in the fire of 2004, or the washed out in the flood of 2006. Turns out Hutch's Pool is a helluva lot farther up canyon — at least one mile past where we stopped for a refreshing dip in 2005.

We caught the first tram this morning and almost froze to death on the ride up. But the 600' climb in the first half mile warmed us up nicely, thank you very much.

It's 2-½ miles from the top of the tram to the junction with West Fork Trail, and another mile-and-a-half from there to the pool. But it was worth every step. The pool is at least 150 feet long, and today we couldn't see the bottom.

It was too much for Dennis, who sank ... er ... swam to a new low — an invigorating 40°!

We noticed he had lost the antenna for his handi talkie about one mile short of the tram, but it was only back home when we reviewed our photos that we discovered we had a video of the antenna slipping away!

Our hiking time for a total of eight miles was 5½ hours. We'll definitely return for an overnight when the water is a few degrees warmer!