I Put it Away When it Stopped Being Fun

My camera captured the colors beautifully, but it's also snowing pretty hard right now. This is the view from the tent

It rained all night long. Hard. Cliff woke up to snow and yet somehow still managed to get a roaring fire started. Maybe last night's marshmallow madness wasn't a bad thing after all. We had a cup coffee and then headed out without breakfast a little after 8am. No time to make food- the ground was a mud pit and that means that the granite face was going to be 'slick as snot'.

I'm slipping while finding my way up

We had a couple of slips, but luckily we all managed to stay *mostly* upright and on the rock where we belonged. It was scary at times, but we made it to the top of both granite cliffs in one piece. The bigger one, was only accomplished with the assistance of the rope Cliff so expertly tied before we left.

Our reward after each major obstacle (first granite face, large granite face, top of the mine tailings) was celebrating in some way. Group hug!

If we stopped for too long our limbs and digits felt frozen so we kept moving and kept our breaks short. Navigation was difficult because the fog was so thick we couldn't see past the trees that were right in front of us. Again, Cliff's experience got us to the top in a direct route without backtracking. I love him!

Staged photo, but it shows the crazy weather on the road

We were all so soaked from the rain and snow that when we finally reached the river crossing we didn't bother to change our shoes and remove our pants we just forged right on through and then kept hiking for the next hour to keep our bodies warm. It was still about an hour and a half from the car, but it certainly made all the other puddle crossings easier. We we stopped trying to find a way around them and just plodded right on through.

It really was a beautiful sight and I probably would of enjoyed it much more if we not in such a hurry to hike up the 2000 foot elevation change to reach our car.  Bert commented about his camera and how pretty it was but that "(he) put it away when it stopped being fun". It was lovely, but the kind of experience you don't go looking for. It was very stressful at times but luckily for us the three of us make a great team.

Traditional Group photo on the way out....this time while it was snowing  in front of the weird lake....
No practice shots this time just take one and keep hiking!

We got to the car by 2pm (holy speedy hiking boots, batman!) and stopped to feast for Brunner (breakfast/lunch/dinner) at Perkos Cafe. Delicious!

We made it home before 8pm, drove up to and got the baby, then came home beyond ready for a real bed.

All the pictures from today