Glen Pass 6/3

Glen Pass

Such a fuss over Forrester Pass when Glen Pass seemed steeper and harder to descend. We used our micro-spikes and found them useful. It took us an entire hour to descend. What we needed were skies, then we would have gone straight down. Tomorrow is Pinchot and possibly Mather. The Sierra is kicking our butts good. TC took some aleve tonight. She feels a bit wrecked. DG is waiting until everything or one thing really, really hurts. 

      There were a few blooming flowers - pink ones that DG said looked a bit like  columbines but TC said no. They have thin, long petals and when they're not fully blooming they droop and wrap around each other. Fresh, green leaves are sprouting out of bushes and DG did see a fire engine red Indian paintbrush. The Coolest of all was seeing two bighorn sheep climbing a hill across the river from DG and TC. Neither ladies have ever seen a bighorn in California. Of course, DG considers this fortuitous. As in, maybe they'll get this thing done...the hike that is. Marmots and chippies and deer are all the wildlife seen lately. Plenty of bear scat.

      The water falls are big and fluffy. They look like inviting foggy mist, luring you to jump in. DG and TC took their first lake dip today at upper Rae Lake. The water was crystal clear, reflecting turquoise. Fish swam around lazily looking for food and possible mates. 

       We hiked for 12 hours today and only did 14 miles the reason being we climbed to 11,900 from 11,100 then Went down to 8500 and back up to 10,560. That's enough to whip you good. Oh, did we mention the snow. There are switchbacks but what is new in the Sierra are the high stepping staircases made out of strategically placed boulders. It's like doing step-ups on the largest boxes available at your local gym... all day. Now we have to massage each other's feet or else paralysis might set in.

Suspension bridge over Woods Creek. 

Big and fluffy.