Johnson Lake
Kaylee
Such a beautiful lake to enjoy a nice afternoon hike around. The trail simply follows the shoreline of the lake and at one point splits to follow a high road and a low road so to speak. The low road remains tight against the shore while the high road gains some elevation up a small hill on the north side of the lake for a beautiful vantage point to view the lake. An interesting little tidbit that I have found in my previous hikes around this lake is that there is an old wooden swing that hangs just off of the incline that is closest to the parking lot when following the trail up the hill. Aside from the neat little swing, there are plenty of half fallen or tilted trees that are leaning against each other, and when there is a good amount of wind rustling the trees, the squeaking and groaning of the wood on wood contact can very convincingly produce a similar noise to the low growl of a bear. When you hear this noise in the middle of bear country however, your first thoughts don’t go to the simple explanation of “Oh it’s just the trees”, rather, they make you turn to your partner in crime, in this scenario it was myself and Kim, and look at each other in disbelief before saying “Sunali and Liam don’t have bear spray.” Thankfully after waiting several painstakingly dead silent moments, reality and reasonable thought kicks in to reassure our nerves that it is not a bear, but silly trees making us have a heart attack. Needless to say after that moment we always double and triple checked that all groups had bear spray at all times.
Kim
I would have to say that this was one of my favorite hikes. It’s an easier hike but there’s lots of different things to see and the trail goes from being right by the water, to in between the trees, to higher up so you get a good view of the lake. There places to sit and eat your lunch and relax right by the lake. Some people swim in it while some just take in the view. I did this hike in the spring and the summer and I would do it again and again given the chance. Me, Kaylee Sunali and Liam did this hike and split into pairs. I would push Liam in the lake, so I made Sunali go with him instead. Kaylee and I went one direction and Liam and Sunali went the other direction. We weren't far from our starting point when we could hear Sunali screaming at Liam over something. Not surprising - I would be doing the same thing. We could see them across the lake from us too which made it even more hilarious. Kaylee and I kept going along the trail into the trees, and we were just taking some pictures and cruising around, when we heard what sounded like a bear roar. Needless to say, we both stopped dead and looked at each other absolutely terrified. Turns out it was just some trees creaking. Slightly embarrassing but to be fair, bears are possible. After this frightful experience, we also then realized that we had both cans of bear spray while Liam and Sunali had none. Oops, guess Liam would be bear bait! We figured we would pass them on the way, and somehow we managed not to pass them even though it’s a loop trail. We still don’t know how we managed this, but we all survived anyways. When I did this hike in the summer, it was late afternoon/evening and it was still quite warm outside, but it was super smoky from the wildfires. There weren’t a lot of people around so it was nice to enjoy the hike. Overall the hike was still nice to enjoy on a summer’s day as the water was nice and calm and there wasn’t an overflow of tourists on the hike.
Sunali
This hike was simple and didn’t take very long. However, everything seems like an eternity when you have to do it with Liam. I’m surprised I came out alive and that he didn’t end up in the lake. He was helpful however, in finding species and identifying them. In hindsight, it was probably our tendency to get distracted by a bird call that made us take longer to get around than Kim and Kaylee who went the opposite direction. It was funny because we didn’t even meet them half way like we expected to considering the trail is a loop around the lake. On top of it all, Kim and Kaylee had both cans of bear spray, so if we ended up running into a bear my main plan was to push Liam and use him as bait. Fortunately, we didn’t run into a bear and so we were able to have our lunch in front of a beautiful view of the mountains. Towards the end of hike, Kim could hear me screaming at Liam and is convinced that this is the reason we don't run in to wildlife.