Burt Canyon to Anna Lake Backpack

Detailed Photo Journal

Steve and I made a very early season attempt at getting to Anna Lake at 10,575' in the Hoover Wilderness hoping for some unfrozen shoreline to fish. The Little Walker river was exceptionally high and impassable at the trail crossing. Hydraulically-speaking, it is a terrible place for a stream crossing, right at a knickpoint of gradient change. Since the canyon became impassable on the east side of the canyon several miles upstream, we had to bushwhack through and around nearly a mile of dense aspen thickets to find an area with a gentle gradient where the river split into two sections.

 We found a sketchy downed tree to cross on the way in and on the way out we crossed upstream of the downed tree near low flow of the runoff cycle (about 11am) which was still crotch-deep. 

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Our Basecamp was about a mile shy of Anna Lake trail spur. We ventured on a day hike to Anna Lake on day two and the trail after the cairns was quickly lost due to snow and runoff, so we XC'd nearly the entire way. The last several hundred meters to the lake was still covered in large amounts of snow in valleys and the lake was entirely frozen but had some melt ponds atop the ice near the southeast side of the lake. 

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​Geology was amazing and the birdsong was stupendous. Saw several large bear tracks (with claw marks) in the mud, and several mountain lion tracks in the snow-covered parts of the trail. Fishing was only possible in eddies behind large boulders or fallen trees and several small brookies were landed on my tenkara rod. Flatiron Butte is perhaps the most breathtaking mountain outside of Yosemite.

PLEASE view the complete photojournal for all the details!

Cross-cut boulder, Burt Canyon, CA by phaneritic on Sketchfab

Petrified Wood. Hoover Wilderness- Burt Canyon by phaneritic on Sketchfab