Lake Helen, A Personal Best in a High Place

I had forgotten how beautiful it was. Above Lake Helen the central core of the Bighorns reflected on the lakes surface. The hard granite of Cloud Peak, Bomber Mountain, Florance Pass, it was all there and it brought back so many memories. I didn't think I would see it again, at least not today but I was  there and  sharing it with Jenny and Renita.
Now we had taken a day to rest after hiking the East Tensleep trail and it was a day of rest that we needed to recover from the grueling hike. I could barely walk and I wondered how I could be in such bad shape. Renita felt pretty good but she was still sore and Jenny, well you know how it is with dancers, they seem to float with every step and she kindly told us that she needed a rest day too.

The plan for the next day was to hike from the trail head at West Tensleep lake to a meadow about two and a half miles up. There Renita and I would stop for lunch and rest while Jenny soloed the trail to Lake Helen. Renita and I had last tried to hike to Lake Helen in 2007 and it had been too much. It was an early June hike and we battled snow and mud and fallen trees and we had almost reached the lake but again the key word was almost. Renita had tired, we didn't know she had undiagnosed diabetes and I had to carry her pack back down the trail. We had both been unaware as to how sick she was and it was lucky it was only the pack that was carried.

So as we left the trail head we had no idea that we would feel so good that we would attempt the ten mile round trip to Lake Helen. We reached the meadow in a little less then two hours and after eating lunch we felt too good to not try. Jenny led us up the switchbacks as we climbed moraine after moraine. We stopped often and I took my pulse, keeping my heart rate below 145 beats per minute which was the maximum rate for a person my age.
Renita moved slow but she kept on moving and so we worked our way higher and higher as we passed Indian paintbrush and a myriad of alpiine flowers. Wild asters were predominant with their purple petals and yellow centers. It reminded me of school.(purple and gold were the school colors), as they flowered just before summer was over and it was time for me to go back to work, but today I could enjoy their beauty.
Further and further we hiked and we passed and then were passed by backpackers and other hikers. Most were heading further up to Mistymoon, a jumping off base camp for those climbing Cloud Peak. I had climbed Cloud four times myself and so I gave advice although they really didn't need it.
Renita asked me if we had passed the spot at which we had retreated in 2007 and I told her it was only a little further before she would reach her personal best.
We climbed more switchbacks and more moraines stood before us but they weren't too bad just another obstacle that you attack one bite at a time. At one point we were discouraged but I hurried ahead to reach the lake and then return to tell them of its beauty, As I went back down I met them just a little ways below the final push and they both seemed to charge up the hill, Lake Helen beckoned.
Now the entire West Tensleep valley is a glacial valley with a chain of paternoster lakes, ( a French term used to describe a chain of lakes that look like the rosary beads hanging from a priests belt), all formed when the glacier retreated. Its marked with straiated rocks, rouse mountainees, and one can see the high cirque lakes. Sitting along the lakes shore we simply enjoyed the solitude of a high mountain lake, the beauty of my favorite place on earth, and the company of each other.

The return was long and tough but we knew it would end. Tired, Renita and  I both stumbled on rocks but never lost our footing. Finally we reached the trail head and we both raised our walking poles to celebrate a ten mile hike at elevation. It was a personal best for both of us and a new bench mark for our travels. Clear skies.