We got a break in the weather, Monday at Applegate Lake, with none of the morning rain or fog that had been predicted. We had blue skies overhead when we pulled into the parking lot for the French Gulch TH. The temperatures ranged from the 40s in the forests to the 60s out in the sunlight by the Lake and at our lunch spot.
We had two stops for wardrobe adjustments, removing warmer clothes when out in the sun and when climbing steep hillsides.
We took the French Gulch Trail down, then up from the parking. Then turned left onto the Payette Trail to begin our loop around the peninsula. The Payette Trail took us alongside the Lake and ran about three miles down to our sunny lunch spot with a picnic table and several flat boulders to seat on.
After lunch, we hiked back about 0.7 miles to find the Osprey Trail with a signpost that was missing its sign. This trail began our ascent back to the TH. About halfway up Osprey, we decided to take a right onto the Degalma Trail, not as steep but a longer way back to the parking lot. Degalma also had several big trees down across the trail from the rough winter weather.
Our group of 15 finally made it back to the TH about 2:30 with plenty of Cardio exercise. We had hiked 7.7 miles with about 500' of elevation gain.
Thanks to Joe for assisting with the trail guidance.
It was a great day on the trail with a good workout at the end.
Happy Trails,
Rich
