Ruby Mountains – Island Lake Trail

With all intentions of hiking the 35-40 miles across the Ruby Mountains, I took a week off of work and drove to Elko Nevada to wait for my friends who were meeting me there to do the trip with me. We were to meet at the Thomas Canyon Campground in Lamoille Canyon. After setting up camp, I drove up the canyon to its end and hiked up the Island Lake trail. The trail is shortish, only a couple miles, but it was a nice diversion from sitting around camp waiting for everyone to get there. The pictures below are of the hike.

Everyone showed up that night and we all had a good night's rest after the long drive we all took to get there. The next morning, we all packed up and the plan was to drive and park one of our three vehicles at the head of Lamoille canyon to be used as a shuttle at the end of the hike. This is where the trip took a turn. I haven't mentioned this anywhere, not on social media or anything because she hated that sort of thing. Since this is my blog, and I feel that if you are reading this, then you must care about what I have to say, at least if you are a subscriber. If you are not, well, sorry to be a downer on your first visit to my site. My mother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer earlier in the year. Something told me I should be home to be near her even though she assured me to go that she would be OK while I was gone. It turned out she was fine, but you know, it just didn't feel right being out there without any way for her to reach me in case she needed me. I made the decision on the drive up the canyon that I was not going to hike the trail with my friends at all and that I would in fact drive home that very day - no trivial thing since it is a 13+ hour drive to get back home in Washington. I'm writing this in March of 2016. My mother passed on August 30 2015 so I'm writing all this in hind-site. This is the first time I have mentioned her death publicly and it will probably be the last. She was a private person, and I am too, to an extent. I do feel I need to get it out though and move on. My hiking and blogging and photography and timelapse stuff have pretty much come to a crawl since the events of last year and I think I am about ready to start up the longer hiking trips and get myself active again.

So, on reaching the head of the canyon, I informed my friends that I was going home and not going to hike. I made up some stuff about being worried about the snow and not wanting to deal with the struggle and pain of carrying a large pack for thirty+ miles. I think I was really just trying to not blame it on my mother's sickness. I felt guilty blaming it on her, but she was really all that was on my mind. They were disappointed, but luckily they still had two cars between them and were able to carry out their shuttle and hike without me.