On Friday, Oct. 3, I headed up Trout Creek to the Heart Lake trailhead. My intent was to visit those 3 lakes and complete the state line loop back to Heart Lake and take lots of pictures of the fall colors. I thought that I would be late for the sun as I was leaving the trailhead at 8:45, but it was just about right with lots of good pictures at Heart Lake. I visited with a couple young guys making their first backpacking trip and then 4 gals from Missoula showed up, they were heading to Pearl Lake. I headed out and the gals caught up with me while I was at Pearl. I tried to convince them to go at least to the saddle between Pearl & Dalton but no success there. I continued over to Dalton Lake and there were about 20 goats along the shore and up on the hillside above the lake. I took some pictures and ate lunch while watching a couple goats on the far shore. I then headed up to the state line trail, then hiked over to where the trail from Heart Lake connects. I then headed back down to Heart Lake and out to the truck (5 pm). There was a gentleman at Heart that was heading to Pearl Lake for a couple days. It was good day with lots of sun. The hike was 11.3 miles with over 3,000 elevation gain. I walked out the door in Hayden at 5:10 am and rolled back in at 7:00 pm.
