We hiked to Lake Ann on Tuesday and stayed over night until Wednesday. Our journey started off a bit strange. On the drive up NF-9737 we ran across what appeared to be a horse bit and reigns. Soon after a horse appeared on the road. It was packed and ready to go. This prompted us to leave the horse and head back to where I saw part of the harness. We searched the area for a few minutes for a rider. We saw nothing. Headed back up the road we came across a stable. The horse was in the parking lot with a couple of young adults. I gave them the reigns and they explained it had run off from being spooked by a dog. This was a huge relief.
At the trail we geared up. It was hot, probably close to 90 degrees. This area is generally very dry. It's best to bring a bit more water than you'd normally hike with. The hiking can be difficult at times. This is due to the grade and the trail conditions. Horses use the trail and it can get chewed up in some places.
We made it to Lake Ann in a couple of hours. There we setup camp. There weren't any other campers.
The lake is a great place to take a dip. The water is warming as the snow melt is pretty much gone and the lake is pretty shallow. We weren't sure if we should drink from it and discussed it for quite some time. There aren't many other options for water at or around the lake. Also, the lake water was fairly clear, didn't smell and seemed to be moving a bit. We filtered it and boiled it for 3 minutes. This took time but made sense for the time of year.
There are bugs at Lake Ann but they weren't too bad.
The wildlife consisted of marmots and picas. They can be seen and heard from the rocky slopes surrounding the lake. Occasionally mountain goats hang out here, but we didn't see any.
The morning we departed smoke rolled in and visibility was pretty poor.
All in all, we had a good stay and ran into maybe 4 people on the trail. Lake Ann was a ghost town.
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