Trail?

Tough day. Before we decided where to jump to on the trail, we called the ranger station up here to check trail conditions. 'Not much snow' is what we heard. Well...apparently Ranger Rick has not ventured up in to the mountains. They are still buried in about 10 feet of snow! Which makes for no trail at all. It was slow going today and we had to go up over Dicks Pass. At least we have our microspikes and gps. A few other hikers, Dizzy and Brownie, asked to stick with us today because they did not have their microspikes or gps. We tried to dig deep footprints as we went so they had someplace to step. And we had to stop every 20 yards or so and check ouR GPS  to see if we were heading the right direction.

Got over the pass

And then the fun really began. Steep slope, no trail. We all did a lot of unintentional butt sliding. It took us well over an hour to even go a mile. It was frustrating and exhausting! 

Stopped for lunch on some rocks because at least we were out of the snow temporarily and tried to dry out shoes and feet.

When we finally got down lower , we could occasionally get glimpses of the trail beneath the snow, and it was usually filled with running water down the mountain. Needless to say, shoes, socks, and feet are soaking wet.  

We walked past several beautiful lakes and in August, this could be a great place to hike.

We were hoping to be able to knock out some big miles up here, but not the case so far. Fingers crossed for tomorrow!!