I've got... the Olympics... tonight...
The 6 mile hike into Boulder Lake, past the Olympic Hot Springs, went by quickly with light overnight packs. Mary & I found a nice campsite on a tiny peninsula in the sub-alpine lake, had a snack, hung our food, set up camp, and took a nap. Well, she read, and I slept from 5pm to 9pm. Oh, sleep, I missed you.
We got up at 9pm for dinner - Mary made mashed potatoes, green beans, and snausages (no seitan when she was shopping). Livin' large!
I got up reasonably early, and spent the morning drinking coffee and reading Quicksilver. The wind was completely calm, and the lake was showing off the surrounding ridges. I delivered coffee and chocolate to Mary's sleeping bag, which eventually took hold, and we broke camp at the crack of... 11:37am.
The plan for Sunday was to scramble up Boulder Peak, 5500', only 1200' above the lake. We didn't decide on this plan until we were already driving, so I hadn't gathered any info...
We followed a trail to the left of the lake up the ridge, then started cross-country up the ridge when the trail dropped down the other side. A couple hours of bushwacking and snow travel brought us to the crux of the climb - a pitch of 4th class / low 5th scrambling. On crummy Olympic rock, with boots and packs on. I went up, and Mary watched. She started up, decided she wasn't into it, but then realized she couldn't climb down. So, the only way down was up, and up she came :) Way to Lessig-up.
After a final push of steep slimy meadow-slab, we were at the top! We had a lovely view of Olympus two peaks over, with its giant hanging glacier. Behind us was the strait of juan de fuca, and above us, nothing but blue. I'm not used to how green the Olympics are, compared to the Cascades. Add white patches of snow and brown/black rock, with tons of wildflowers, and you could say our hearts were alive...
Not wanting to reverse our approach, we chose to complete the ridge loop around the lake. I had fun kicking descending traverse steps in steep snow (argh), and we eventually found an intermittent deer path. BW 2-3 for a few hours got us back to the trail, thanks to my map, compass, and altimeter.
We celebrated our return to the lake by filtering water. My pack, perched precariously on the trail, decided to leap into the creek. Awesome.
The hike out went quickly, Mary's getting speedy! We took a detour to soak our feet in the hot springs, then finished off the 2-mile closed rode walkout in crocs.
Yeeha!
We got up at 9pm for dinner - Mary made mashed potatoes, green beans, and snausages (no seitan when she was shopping). Livin' large!
I got up reasonably early, and spent the morning drinking coffee and reading Quicksilver. The wind was completely calm, and the lake was showing off the surrounding ridges. I delivered coffee and chocolate to Mary's sleeping bag, which eventually took hold, and we broke camp at the crack of... 11:37am.
The plan for Sunday was to scramble up Boulder Peak, 5500', only 1200' above the lake. We didn't decide on this plan until we were already driving, so I hadn't gathered any info...
We followed a trail to the left of the lake up the ridge, then started cross-country up the ridge when the trail dropped down the other side. A couple hours of bushwacking and snow travel brought us to the crux of the climb - a pitch of 4th class / low 5th scrambling. On crummy Olympic rock, with boots and packs on. I went up, and Mary watched. She started up, decided she wasn't into it, but then realized she couldn't climb down. So, the only way down was up, and up she came :) Way to Lessig-up.
After a final push of steep slimy meadow-slab, we were at the top! We had a lovely view of Olympus two peaks over, with its giant hanging glacier. Behind us was the strait of juan de fuca, and above us, nothing but blue. I'm not used to how green the Olympics are, compared to the Cascades. Add white patches of snow and brown/black rock, with tons of wildflowers, and you could say our hearts were alive...
Not wanting to reverse our approach, we chose to complete the ridge loop around the lake. I had fun kicking descending traverse steps in steep snow (argh), and we eventually found an intermittent deer path. BW 2-3 for a few hours got us back to the trail, thanks to my map, compass, and altimeter.
We celebrated our return to the lake by filtering water. My pack, perched precariously on the trail, decided to leap into the creek. Awesome.
The hike out went quickly, Mary's getting speedy! We took a detour to soak our feet in the hot springs, then finished off the 2-mile closed rode walkout in crocs.
Yeeha!