Chapter 5
Backpack over Lester Pass to Cook Lakes

We were originally planning on staying at Island Lake another day and day hiking up thru Indian Basin to Indian Pass. Instead, we decided to leave Island Lake and hike part way back out to the Lester Pass cutoff trail. From there we headed south over Lester Pass, down past Tommy Lake to Cook Lakes where we set up camp again. Today's backpack was a total of about 6.3 miles.

The view from the top of Lester Pass was fabulous! At Cook Lakes we found a real nice sheltered site in a slight hollow between a hill and a row of trees. We didn't have a water view of the lake but the site was nice, private and outa sight.

Here's the view from Lester Pass looking west. The red arrow shows the valley where the trail junction was. The Highline Trail wound up thru the ponds in the basin area shown.

This is the view from Lester Pass looking east toward Cook Lakes. Straight ahead hidden behind the small hill is Tommy Lake. Up on the far right is Lake Nelson.

Here we are at Tommy Lake, resting and having lunch with a beautiful view.

This is one of the Cook Lakes. Comparing the sky to the Tommy Lake photo
taken a few hrs earlier, you can see that the sky has gotten overcast. We had
a little drizzle on our hike in to the lakes.

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This is our campsite at Cook Lake. We couldn't see the lake from the
site, but we were well protected in a small depression between a hill
and some trees.