After a long day, we were all moving a little slow this morning. I “slept in” and didn’t get going until about 7:30 am. I was still the first one to leave camp.
Leaving early has some advantages, not only does it give you more time to hike, but you also get to see more wildlife.
This mom and baby didn’t seem to mind me too much. It’s my 5th and 6th moose that I’ve seen so far.
Today’s hike started with a walk along Texas Creek before climbing up and up and up to Lake Anne Pass. We’ve been hearing about this pass for the last week or so while we contemplated getting rid of our ice axes. Not for it’s beauty, but it’s danger.
The way up is south facing, so all the snow has long since melted. As you can see, I made it up just fine. Where the real danger comes is on the way down.
The north facing side holds snow much longer and we’ve been told it’s steep and extremely dangerous. Lucky for us, that side is mostly melted out too!
There were about 20 steps or so that had some consequence. Probably the worst that could happen was a broken leg. Most likely just some scrapes and bruises.
We took our time and managed it safely. The rest of the way down involved some snow, but nothing too steep or interesting.
The forecast called for some rain today so we found ourselves racing the weather. You could see dark clouds moving in and that usually means thunderstorms.
After a long downhill, we started climbing and it started to sprinkle and then rain. I was ahead and stopped to wait at a campsite halfway up the pass to get out of the rain. When Caddyshack (Elliot) showed up, the sky began to clear and we decided to push on.
The climb was tough, but the dark clouds in the distance kept us going fast. Every once in awhile we could hear the rumble of thunder in the distance. The sky above us stayed clear so we pushed on.
We didn’t spend much time on the pass and not long after we got down it started raining and then hailing. To me, hail is actually a good sign. That usually means the storm will pass quickly.
Sure enough, after about 5 minutes huddled under a tree, the rain slowed enough to keep hiking. Our goal was to make it close to the town of Twin Lakes. The trail passes within a couple miles of the town twice. Once when you get down to the lakes, and another time after going all the way around the lakes.
We made it to the lakes and found a spot to camp. As we were setting up it started raining again. I hurried and set up my tent and dove inside. Instead of cooking dinner, I just ate most of my leftover snacks. We’ll get food in town tomorrow.
This is really one of the first times I’ve had to deal with serious rain on a trail. The forecast calls for more rain tomorrow so I’m not sure what we’ll do. We weren’t planning on staying in Twin Lakes, but it would be nice to dry out our gear.