Backpacking to Island Lake

Russ and I were able to go on our yearly backpacking trip again, thanks to my Mom who watched our kids for us.  We went to Island Lake in the White Clouds.  8 miles in, four days, three nights.  We planned on hiking the 8 miles to Walker Lake on the first day and setting up a base camp.  The other days we were going to hike to various lakes nearby and fish.  On the way up we met a man from Southeast Idaho who said he came to this same spot every year.  He recommended camping at Island Lake instead of Walker Lake.  He said there were far fewer people at Island Lake.  We took his recommendation and set off toward Island Lake at the fork.  It turned out to be great advice.  We saw only one other person camping at Island Lake and it was beautiful.  We had a great camping spot and the perfect rock to sit and cook on right by the lake.  The next day we left our base camp and hiked over the mountain to a series of lakes, which we fished at (or napped at in my case).  Of the lakes we visited there was only one that was good fishing, but it was so good it made up for the other lakes.  On the third day we did more hiking but by afternoon we knew the weather was turning.  It started raining and the wind was howling.  We hung out in the tent playing card games and even cooking from under the cover of the tent.  When the temperature started dropping significantly we decided to pack up and head out early.  We didn't want to wake up to snow.  It took us long enough to get out that it was near dark when we reached the car.  We were so tired that we decided to stop in Stanley and stay the night.  We got some dinner at a restaurant there and slept soundly.  The next day we drove home fully recharged from a great backpacking trip.