Isolation (Brynhild) Lake and Tranquil (Freya) Lake were the first lakes of the Upper Enchantments that we encountered. Beautiful but barren, this area looked like pictures I’d seen of the Sierras and also reminded me of Gothic Basin. We immediately saw a mountain goat and a baby goat, the first of many goat encounters we’d have during our stay.

I was very fortunate to get Core Enchantments permits, which allowed us to camp in any zone. We saw other groups daytripping into the core zone from their base camps at Snow Lakes, Colchuck Lake, and even Stuart Lake! After the trip up Aasgard, I couldn’t imagine having to go back down the same day.

We sat down and finally ate lunch (someone decided we didn’t get to eat until we got to the top) when it suddenly started getting really cold. As people in our group finished eating, they got up and continued on the trail, trying to keep moving to stay warm. Then the rain started.

It didn’t rain for too long and it didn’t rain that hard, but it was enough that most of the day hikers had to turn around. The sun reappeared early in the evening, and I wanted to see everything in better conditions, so I dragged my tired legs back up to Isolation Lake.

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