Bear and Deer Lakes, Dorothy Lake 5.30.05

I decided to take one of my co-workers, Isac, who had never been backpacking before. I chose the Lake Dorothy trail because I knew there wasn't alot of elevation gain to the lake. My hope was we could camp at Bear and Deer Lake. From the outset it was apparent to me that Isac wasn't comfortable carrying a overnight pack. I off loaded as much of his pack onto mine as I could fit in and on. With the holiday weekend there were more people than campsites so I was worried about finding a suitable home if and when we reached our goal. To Isac's credit he stuck it out and made it to the saddle above our intended destination. The weather was just becoming warm as we reached the saddle but that was short lived. As we dropped to Bear Lake the weather became quite cool and foggy. The lakes were fogged in so bad you couldn't see the lake from more than 15 feet away from it. I thankfully found a nice campsite besides some moving water. After setting up camp I decided to do some scouting for my trip's goal of Little Bulger Peak. I dropped to Deer Lake to find the weather even more wet the fog was condensing on everything making it seem like it was raining heavily. In my life I have seen just about everything but nothing prepared me for what I saw just before I reached Deer Lake. I saw a man gathering firewood off of the trail, as I approached, I thought is he wearing Speedos? As I drew closer I realized that what he was wearing was a shirt..... and that was it. It took a while to register, so I wasn't really sure what to say as I passed. I had hoped to use the isthmus between Bear and Deer Lake for my approach on Little Bulger but I nixed that idea when I saw the man bringing that firewood in that direction. I returned to camp, giving up on any climbing becuase of the lack of any visibility and the extremely wet conditions. I hoped the morning would bring dry conditions for my second goal of Mile High Mt. But when I awoke it was even wetter so we broke camp and made our way back to Dorothy. At Dorothy we found drier weather and Isac tried his hand at some fishing with out any results. I on the other hand was too lazy to even set up my rod. This trip was very crowded, and with two dogs made it less than enjoyable. I am not sure I will have a return hike with Isac but I was proud of him for sticking it out. To add to the overcrowding theme it took us two hours to reach Sultan from the trailhead due to heavy traffic. We were stopped without even moving for long stretches I cannot believe a major highway would ever be so backed up. I finally made it home to dry out all my things.