Posted by Goat

WOW! With a capital OW! I’ll just give the highlights, since Tar already posted the details. We started up the back side for a change. I had read that it was supposedly flatter and for a little while it was. I thought this trip wasn’t bad in the beginning, but once we started hitting the snow trails, it became a different matter. One would think that we Iowans have never walked on snow. This is not like the type of snow that we typically walk on. First, the snow we walk on isn’t half melted from underneath with a river running under it. Now not all had a river, but we couldn’t see how deep or what was underneath most of it, so the uncertainty was kinda unnerving… Also, the snow we’re used to isn’t at a steep angle. We did pretty well up to what appeared to be the last ridge, and would have gone up it, but the snow field there was not something that we were willing to try. We had crossed so many (OK, maybe 4) that we just couldn’t handle the nerves of trying this one, plus, remember, what goes up, must come down. So we would have had to cross it again… just like we did with the others. Did I mention the times we slipped on the others? Not each one, but I did on one and Tar did on another. Actually, I think I did twice, once without Wally and once with. Tar’s was with Wally. He didn’t like those much… kept saying “NO, NO…”

The OW part came on the way back. The constant down hill, and then with Wally adding pressure on my hips, and the heat added to a great deal of pain. Once we got back to the trailhead, I found the water fountain with a spigot on the lower post and I stuck my feet under the water until they were frozen. Felt good! Another part of the OW, is typical of new hikes, we had no idea where the trail was or where the lake was, so after every turn, it was always, “are we there yet?”.

We wish we could have made it over that ridge, but maybe when that snow isn’t there anymore.

Goat

You can also read Tar’s narrative and a technical description with photos.