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Part 2 of my chain lakes/ lake dowelle report, see my chain lakes report before reading this.
After a surprisingly decent night sleep on the ground inside my tent, i woke up at 5:00am. The twilight was dim and the breeze was crisp. The sun sun wouldnt climb over the surrounding mountains for at least an hour. I set off with a light pack with my fly gear water, and empty water containers in tow.
The hike from chain lakes dowell lakes is an awesome one, absolutely majestic and humbling. A short but steep hike. I arrived at dowelle at around 6:00am not a fish to be seen surfacung. After doing some roll casting and switching flies quite a bit i reach a very promising looking inlet creek and started to fish that area hard. The sun came up over the hills and the lake woke up, i started seeing fish rise all over the place including a few HUGE trout the breached the surface completely. I casted towards risers and finally got my first hook up and landed a a 10" cutthroat, then a few casts later i caught a dink 6" the action died in that area so i moved down the shore near a boulder field in the lake, from here i could see well into the water i was fishing, yet i was far enough back to remain stealthy, a few rolls casts in a fan pattern produced a jaw dropping viscious strike from the largest trout ive seen in an alpine lake to date, this fish took the fly then swam towards me! I wasnt prepared for that and couldnt get the slack out of the line before it shook the hook. This trout was huge, probably in the 16"-18" neighborhood. I would guess around 2 pounds... a few casts later and i miss another big trout in the 14" class... i was late on the hookset... the action was picking up but sadly i had to leave, it was 8am and in order to make it back to my car by a reasonable i set 8am as my time limit... i begrudgingly left the lake soured and humbled by the large fish almost within grasp.
I made it back to camp at 8:45 i decided to use my camp stove to cook some breakfast before the long journey. As i was cooking my food, i noticed a larger object moving in my periferes, i look over and there is a wild mountain goat standing 50' away! I stayed calm, but unsheathed my knife (my only available deffense) i waved at the goat and spoke to the goat assuming that would spook it away from me, but infact it did the opposite, once the goat saw me standing there it walked straight over to me! There i am alone at 5,700' elevation 12 miles from the car, alone with only a 5" blade to protect me, and there is a 100+pound wild mountain goat coming straight towards me . I recorded it on my phone while trying to convince the goat to go away, until it came as close as 5' away then i stopped recording it, i decided it was time for action. I made my loudest scariest war cry, charged it and i finally scared it away. Thank god. I believe the problem is either A.) People have been feeding this goat, and it as acclimated to people or B.) People urinated in that area causing the ground to contain precious salt for the goats, either way both can be prevented. DO NOT FEED WILD ANIMALS IT PUTS PEOPLE AND ANIMALS IN DANGER. Also there is a pit toilet there at the lake, there is no need to urinate on the ground and attract goats.
I broke camp. At 9:30 am and headed on my grueling slog back to the car. Pushing my self to exhaustion as hard as i could i arrived at my car at 4:30pm and finally was able to rest. And so ends the roughest most humbling adventure ive ever embarked on, thankful for my safety and thankful for the majical experiences that will forever be imprinted in my memory.

AJFishdude

7/10/2015 11:04:00 PM

Nice John. It's the ones that get away that keep you coming back for more...

jonb

7/10/2015 11:48:00 PM

I forgot to mention in the report, i almost ran out of water several times, luckily i kept finding mountain springs right at the source, i ended up filling/consuming 3 gallons of unprocessed pure natural spring water, and litterally filled up on blueberries and salmon berries as i walked the icycle creek trail. Lots of other wildlife too, pikas, marmots lots of birds, goat, frogs, and of coarse bugs. Clearly a working ecosystem there.

Dave M

7/11/2015 12:04:00 AM

Sounds like a great trip Jon.

DjButler

7/11/2015 3:54:00 AM

Dude you need to hit up lake wa with me and get a few 3-5 lb cutties... They are fun

jonb

7/11/2015 9:43:00 AM

I was recently in a work related injury(right wrist/hand), i cant row yet. Ive been hitting alpine lakes and streams because i can left handed fly fish(permission from the doctor) from shore, BUT i would love to hit lake wa with you once the doc sais its ok to row. Unless you have a 2 seater boat? Last i remember you fish from a toon.

tframe

7/11/2015 5:51:00 PM

Awesome report again. There are a lot of lakes that hold large trout like this, just have to do your research and put in the work. Well done.

afk

7/12/2015 8:09:00 AM

Great report. I too have drank from many a mountain spring. But, SteriPENS are a cheap and effective alternative to the alternative. Keep up the great reporting. Thanks, Andy

jonb

7/12/2015 9:45:00 PM

Im looking into buying a water filtration pump, running into a mountain spring is nice and can save your butt, but it is wise to have a better back up plan, a water filtration pump would mean security in my water source. I could survive for a good long while with not much, i know this and dont need to test it, with that in mind, it is always smarter to error on the side of caution when in the mountains. Safety will remain my priority on all mountain adventures.

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