Day 4 looked short on paper, just 4 miles and 1200 feet of climb. The goal was to get up and over the Glacier Divide via Snow-Tongue Pass. It even looked easy on the map. Well, except all those close-together contour lines on the other side...
Let's see what Roper has to say: "Surprisingly easy walking leads past several tarns to a short, stable talus slope that ends at 12,200-foot Snow-Tongue Pass.
Here a superb view - both exhilarating and frightening - awaits the High Route trekker. The terrifying part of the view is the immediate foreground where acres of shattered rock drop precipitously down the northern escarpment of Glacier Divide. James Hutchinson was aghast as he gazed over this cliff in 1904, noting with gloom that 'the prospects were far from bright.' As with many obstacles in mountainous country, however, the sight proved worse that actuality, and Hutchinson's group had no particular trouble with the descent."
When Roper says "precipitously" we always pay attention!
We were all wide awake and curious/trepidatious about what we would find. The hike up toward the pass was as easy as reported. A group of guys climbed past us along the way, moving well.
The pass is on the right side of this photo:
Robyn getting her InReach ready, you know, just in case:
Cathy surveying the area we had climbed up from, including the afore-mentioned tarns (small mountain ponds):
At the top, John scouted the ridge and determined that Roper's instructions were good - we needed to hike up to the right and find a small notch where the descent was safer. Not necessarily easy, but doable. Thanks for checking it all out, Mr. SHR Guide Man!
But first, we hung out to watch what the group ahead of us was doing. There was a lot of conversation happening below us, and it turned out they were going straight down instead of heading over to the notch first. We decided to wait until they were down, just to be sure we didn't kick any rocks in their direction, and they got there eventually.
One of the guys is a speck on the snow in this photo:
OK, let's do this! There's a small ledge at the top that is (relatively) simple without a pack on, so John helped Cathy get past that obstacle. She started down the scree slope and decided she'd prefer to be pack-less the rest of the way down the steep part. No problem, John is a pack mule and totally comfortable up here. And he ate his proverbial Wheaties for breakfast.
He brought her pack down as she did a slow butt-slide on the loose dirt, then he came back up to where Robyn and I were chatting about how "we can do hard things." Robyn was next and she attempted to carry her pack until it got caught in a rock. Meanwhile, John was busy schlepping packs and helping me get started past the ledge and onto the slope. I found some handholds along the solid rocks on the left side, making things a bit more comfortable for me.
We were all careful not to be above one another, everyone figuring out ways to inch down toward the snow. Cathy made it down and Robyn was almost there when we heard a new set of voices above us. Well, that's crappy timing.
John yelled up to them to WAIT for us to get out of the way. It seemed like they were still moving around and then we heard "rock, rock!" I was already right next to a large overhang so I ducked underneath it and tucked against the wall. Robyn and John watched the rock bounce, thankfully nowhere near them. Then we all turned and yelled "we said WAIT!" (there might have been more choice words in there). This time it got quiet up top. Thank you!
We finished our descent, which got easier the further down we went, and gathered our group and our packs together (huge props to John for all the up and down scrambling!). OK, we're clear you guys!
Taking a break for a few minutes in an area without snow:
An easy snowfield walk around a tarn:
And then we could start working across the next rocky area:
John pointing back up toward Snow-Tongue Pass - it's a bit of a doozy!
The Day of Rocks wasn't over yet... we traveled around several small lakes, and John even convinced us to try this path between two of them:
We were slightly surprised that it worked with only a small amount of wading. Hard to say if this was the better option vs. the slope around the edge of the lake, but it was for sure the most interesting:
Here we're smiling because it feels like we're almost out of the rocks:
We were indeed out of that valley - however! We were not yet out of the rocks. Roper describes this section as "horrible, endless talus," and just as we were thinking it really wasn't that bad, we discovered that Roper is usually right.
Below the outlet of the valley we did more rock hopping, stopping briefly for a much-needed break before hopping some more.
John demonstrating proficiency at water treatment:
Eventually we found actual soil, grass, flowers, and a way down toward Humphrey's Basin. The day had an excellent ending at a truly lovely campsite near Piute Creek.
Day 4 haiku:
Snow-Tongue Pass - scary!
John is our most useful tool
Endless talus... done!
Day 5 was another new experience in our SHR travels - a resupply! When we mapped this route last year, we saw that we would travel close to Piute Pass. I'd previously been over Piute Pass on a day hike from North Lake and volunteered to head down to the trailhead to pick up provisions. John offered to join me and I never pass up his offers of company.
We headed out early with a mostly-empty large pack:
If anything of note happened during our trek, it has escaped my memory. I do know that we enjoyed our "day off" and met more people than we would see the whole rest of the time.
At the trailhead we retrieved our stash of food from the bear box. Sorting to remove some extra items, I found a bottle of whiskey that Cathy had included. I plotted to pretend that we drew the line at carrying it 2000 feet uphill and had instead left it in the bear box to pick up later. We loaded up and started back up the trail.
Love the colors along the way:
Such pretty lakes up in the high country:
Many months later and it makes me happy to remember being up high amid the granite:
Flowers! Our reward for an early-season trip (due to Western States 100 timing), in return for dealing with the excess of mosquitoes.
Actually, the bug level died down somewhat after we crossed Snow-Tongue Pass. They never went away, just became more tolerable in the second half of the trek.
Robyn and Cathy spent the day hiking around the basin, admiring flowers, and checking out the large Desolation Lake. We all agreed that a resupply day is a wonderful thing when you can make it happen.
Back at our temporary home and enjoying the lovely view:
Hello John!
My whiskey ruse worked well enough that Cathy was pleasantly surprised to see it when it was finally unveiled, and she handed it over for a small swig every evening for the rest of the journey (even more of a bonus since John carried it most of the way up). Score!
One of my favorite parts of the day, whenever it's time to eat :)
Day 5 haiku:
More food - and whiskey :)
Basin exploration day
Now we can hike on
We had been writing "notes" to each other using sticks, mostly to indicate approximate times for returning to camp. This was probably our target departure time on the morning of day 6:
Fields of purple flowers in Humphreys Basin, such a pretty place to walk through:
Climbing up what I assume is the "wedge" as we made our way back to the diamond route markers on the Skurka maps:
This worked fine, but looking across the basin below us it appears like a more direct path would also go. Maybe someday we'll return and check it out.
The flat area before Puppet Pass with lots of rocks and not much else:
Time for a group photo, yay for SHR hiking friends!
And a nice selfie John took showing where we had spent the past couple days and nights (and one last look at Snow-Tongue Pass in the distance for good measure):
Moving on, it's time for some French - looking over the other side of Puppet Pass at Roget, Blanc, Lorraine, Paris, Alsace, and Puppet Lakes:
It took us a few minutes to realize that there's a large valley in between the lakes and the waterfall in the distance, that's pretty neat. Also our afternoon quest (dropping down and climbing up the other side).
Figuring out our footing down the Puppet Pass boulders:
Another look at Puppet Lake:
We snacked near Paris and then started toward the descent into French Canyon (ah right, the French connection). I had originally thought we might camp by Elba Lake but we had plenty of time and energy remaining so we decided to forge ahead and do the big drop/climb through the canyon today.
Which turned out to be a good decision in many ways, including when we weren't all that excited to see the swampy areas around Elba.
It was odd having extra time - our previous SHR journeys had always taken every minute of every day with little room to play around.
The waterfall is getting closer, with Merriam Peak above it:
We headed down through the trees, dropping and weaving, trying to stay in open areas for easier travel. John is good at finding decent off-trail pathways and we didn't do too much bushwhacking. The creek crossing was simple and soon we were on a trail.
There was a couple with a dog (if I remember right) and we chatted about our respective destinations for the night - turns out we were all heading toward Merriam Lake. Weird to think about having company on the High Route, but it's a big place with lots of room.
Soon we found the turnoff onto an unmarked trail that aims straight up the other side of the canyon next to a little creek. Skurka notes that it is "Steep!" and we concur. I was happy to have my climbing legs back by the time we got to that one.
It's also a lesser-maintained trail and John was thrilled to have a chance to clean it up a bit. Robyn jumped in to help while Cathy and I documented the process:
Always handy having a good travel saw - and someone who likes to use it!
From the top of that haul, we arced around a pretty basin and then climbed a bit more to find our lake for the night. I like to call it "Merriam the Librariam"
John did some recon for the following morning, taking pictures from the top of the waterfall above the lake:
Our camp is down there somewhere (and possibly the other couple had arrived by this point and set up across the way), but what really matters is that it's an incredibly beautiful spot! We were all highly pleased with our decision to push on to get here:
Even at almost 11,000 feet, the mosquitoes still found us in the evening. At least we have good tent netting. And the weather was perfect for leaving off the tent fly so we could see the sunset:
Tent buddies:
Day 6 haiku:
Mesa confusion
So many beautiful lakes
Ahead of schedule?!
