Day 114 Etna to Lake Marten

Day 114 Etna to Marten Lk
14.5 miles
From Etna Summit (mile 1601.2, elevation 5952)
To Marten Lake (mile 1615.5, elevation 6340)
Upload 2667
Descend 2274

After finishing the large carton of ice cream, my day began with breakfast at the Bluebird Inn. Breakfast was good, especially talking to regular guests of the inn, like Mike. Mike is a concrete contractor (I never knew there were so many complexities when it came to concrete), but he had also traveled the world diving, with over 2,700 dives.

Brie seemed very excited to see me when she got there. She is very active and adventurous. I had been in the area to climb Mount Shasta with friends. But she has never done any hiking and was really interested and excited about my hike. She brought me resupply items and took me to the Etna Summit. In fact, he was brave enough to want to try on my backpack and see how heavy it was.

with Brie at the trailhead

Starting at the Etna Summit, I ended up skipping the closed fire section. (I heard they reopened it about the next day)

Once the hike was over, the day started well. The weather was great, with some clouds to keep things cool. Most of the day it felt like the trail was following a long ridge. The ups and downs were generally small. The trail still has many sections of scree.

Looking towards the end of the day

I started later and ended up at Marten Lake at the end of the day, squeezing my tent into a space that was barely big enough.

Lake Martha

There’s not much extra space for my tent here.

This website contains affiliate links, which means The Trek may receive a percentage of any products or services you purchase using links in articles or advertisements. The buyer pays the same price they would otherwise pay, and their purchase helps support The Trek’s ongoing goal of bringing you quality backpacking information and advice. Thank you for your support!

For more information, visit the About page of this site.