Eye to Eye With A Glacier

8/14/13

PCT mile 2424-2438 - 14 miles

Elev 3211-3027

My feet are still sore upon waking but we're on the trail by 6:50. We know we have a 6.5 mile uphill to do right away, a 2700 ft elevation gain.  We started out in wet brush through Lemah Meadow and up one of the surrounding mountain sides.  Hiking into the forested hillside by switchbacks, we looked across the valley we camped in to the mountain on the other side and we could gauge our progress by watching the hanging glacier  which is far above us get closer and closer.

The snow far above is the glacier we watched.

The glacier is now almost eye level.

We've reached the top and up to alpine meadows looking directly across at the glacier and snowfields on the other side. We ambled through this meadow to the other side and down into a neighboring valley where we found our water source, a small creek winding through a meadow.  It was overcast & we thought maybe smoke from a fire in eastern Washington might be making it hazy. This was a tiny cirque lake dug out by glacial activity that we passed too.

Here's the water source and meadow with our packs. 

 We had a snack break here, wandered around and spooked hundreds of frogs into the water. We also found our first gentians, hardly opened but still with a hint of the deep blue color that makes them so beautiful.

Other flowers that lined this meadow that I'm calling penstemon a until I know otherwise.

Lots of people are on the trail, section hikers and a few thrus.  We saw Aaron who we saw in the last section.  He'd had a family activity in Seattle and was back on the trail passing us yet again! Long legs striding into the distance.  

After break we started the 7 mile downhill, losing all that we had gained this morning. 

Down through brushy trail we came to this opening where we could see Waptus Lake spread out below.  We plan on camping at Waptus Creek and want to get there before too many campers take the campsites. 

We got a nice spot above the creek where we hoped the breeze would keep the bugs at bay... didn't happen.

Peggy did manage to get a picture of a tiny pika, they look like a small gerbil sized rabbit, tiny ears, mouse like features. They give a high pitched squeak as they call alarms across the rocky hillsides. 

Our tent site for the night. 

At 7:30pm we felt the wind pick up and soon a few raindrops. We had time to tighten the ropes on our tents,( I put up the vestibule of my tent which I normally don't do)  take in laundry that we had drying and tuck in before it started raining.