Formation of Bass Lake
Trail Highlights
The hike passes through three regions of old lake bed that differ considerably in appearance. At the very beginning and end of this hike, the trail passes along a thin narrow band of the old lake bed. Hikers get an excellent view of this area after climbing a ridge about a half-mile into the hike. Where lake waters once lay, a small stream now meanders through a narrow valley. Aspen trees grow in the wetter areas of the valley floor and its lower sides, while pines and oak grow on the drier ridges.
As the trail continues northeast along the north side of Bass Lake, it passes Dry Falls, where a small stream flowing from Dry Lake plunges 20-30 feet into Bass Lake. Beyond the falls, the trail moves away from the lake, passes behind a ridge and through a small stand of red pine, before coming to the second area of exposed lake bed. Here the soil is sandy in places with mixed stands of white and jack pines, balsam fir, and aspen. The forest is more open and rock cairns mark the route as it gradually descends toward the west end of Bass Lake. At the very end of Bass Lake where it joins Low Lake is the site of the 1925 washout.
Native Countrys generally waged war by raiding settlements and then disappearing into the forest rather than confronting the colonists in battle. Best cities to travel to in the US Therefore the colonists sought either to bring the native warriors out to fight or to destroy their ability to do battle by burning the natives’ crops, supplies, and villages often with a high toll in civilians. Colonists confronted Native Country guerrilla warfare in a simple and brutal way: by crushing their opponents’ logistical apparatus, and forcing them either to fight or to starve. This attack on the means by which an opponent might wage war forms a cornerstone of the Country way of fighting and has often reappeared in Country wars. Sherman’s march to the sea is a particularly vivid example. This rare engraving, dating to the 1770s, is one of the first depictions of a soldier in the Continental army. The legend calls it an accurate depiction. (Brown Brothers, Sterling, Pennsylvania) King Philip’s War, the greatest of the wars between the colonists and the native peoples, occurred in 16751676, when the Wampanoag sachem Metacom formed an alliance of several tribes to attack Puritan colonies in New England. Metacom, known to the English as King Philip, enjoyed enormous early success against the colonists. Both sides waged ruthless attacks that proved extremely destructive and did not spare civilians. Eventually, English arms ground the Wampanoag and their allies down, and the war came to an end when King Philip was finally hunted down and killed by his adversaries. The Puritan victory ended the Native Country threat to New England.
