Iceberg Lake....one of two on Mt. Adams and both are hard to find! There is an iceberg lake on both the north and south side and they are above 7000 feet of elevation. I found this one first, then a few weeks later, found the other. When a glacier cleaves off into a lake and icebergs float around until they melt....even on hot summer days.....these waters are cold! So what else can a girl do in a bucket list moment like this, but strip down and take a polar plunge into those deep blue waters! Well, that was me. NovaLeigh said she would sit with my clothes, gun and gear and had no desire to take that dip. Here she is taking that job very seriously.
When I had first researched this hike, I had read that this is considered a secret lake. I read that you have to explore above the dead zone (above 7,000 feet) where no trails lay and it is all rock and shale, sand and gravel, glaciers and moraines and only then can you find the secret lake at just over 8000 feet. The ice floats here year round. This lake had became an obsession as soon as I read about it of course. Finding it, however, was easier said than done as the north side of the mountain is quite extensive and really feels like you are on the moon at times. After a full day of climbing and route finding, exploring and being utterly lost at times….right as I was about at the end of my rope and convinced we would never find it, we climbed up a steep section of glacier (which we of course later glissaded down to Nova’s pure delight), there she was. The lake laid right out before us like a golden blue jewel! There were no humans in sight for most of this day. I ended up taking two dips into this jewel and found that the second one luckily did feel warmer than the first!
But the most shocking thing of all was not the temperature of that water. It was not the loud cracking, popping and groaning of that glacier above us….although that was truly impressive! It was not the ice calving off into the lake. The most shocking thing of all was when I woke up after a brief nap where I was lying out in the sun trying to dry off before getting dressed and found over 2 dozen mountain goats staring with their little mouths practically wide open at the surprise of finding a naked woman and a clothes wearing dog at their lake! I learned on this hike that I have officially lost all inhibitions when it comes to the mountains and forests. I have now gone for swims in many, many lakes over the hiking seasons. I like to say that what happens in the woods, stays in the woods! Nova and those goats were my only witnesses and they are not talking!
It is not an easy thing to take photos while glissading down a glacier, but I attempted it when leaving Iceberg Lake and captured a rare glimpse of Nova's goofy side on film! I was lying on my back while taking this and sliding down the mountain and she was jumping along side in utter joy. This is how God wants us to live every single day.....with utter joy in all that we do. Oh, if I could only live on this mountain every day that would be so easy!
On our way back down the trail, we looked back at Adams in a field of wildflowers, and knew we would have to come back and spend the night. What we didn't know is that exactly a year later when we did so, we would have a wolf with us for the trip.
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