It always makes me sad as daylight hours start to get noticeably shorter. There’s not much light by 5:20am and it’s almost dark at 8:30pm. Needless to say we take advantage of all of them!

The Sunrise hiking out of camp.

The view over our campsite.

We had a relaxing mid-morning siesta at the Waptus River.

Here is DV hiking through some thick brush. Tons of huckleberries and thimble berries along the trail.

Some afternoon clouds rolled in and we got spit on just a bit.

We “only” did 6500′ of climbing today. The final decent was through this giant scree field.

After a couple miles we finally hit smooth ground again.

We rolled into camp at 7:45 on the shores of Glacier Lake. Flat campsites were at a premium but we managed to squeeze in.

Darth Vada’s dad and stepmom picked me up on the way back up to Snoqualmie Pass and we were on the trail by 8:30. Not all miles are created equal…today’s 27mi included 9300′ of climbing. With the later than normal start it turned into a marathon day. We got into camp at 8:15 with a grand total of 30 minutes (for lunch) with our packs off.

Riding in style back to the trail.

An incredibly clear day to see Mt. Rainier.

Lots of alpine lakes…

and deep valleys.

Hiking across many talus slopes today created some extra fatigue in the feet.

We climbed over the saddle and then did a high traverse around the lake.

Enjoying the waterfalls.

One of the many glacier filled peaks in the area.

A spectacular campsite to end the day. Unfortunately, we only had about 30 minutes of daylight remaining after we arrived.