Peaks & Parking Lots

I used to have all the magnets glued onto this little white walking curtain but they all fell off so I just stack them like that. The handle right there. Face serum. Sunscreen of course. These pink flowers here are called fireweed. Over the last three or four years I've been trying to do this thing where when I go out hiking or camping I try to take a photo of a plant that I don't know yet or a bird or something that I can't identify yet and then when I get back to you know service and wi-fi I can figure out what it is and over time I built like a little bit of a mental map of the flora and fauna and birds and things around. It's probably a very incomplete map but I kind of equate it to when you're driving down a road that you've never driven down before and suddenly it connects to a route that you're familiar with and then your mental map can expand to include that new thing because it's all super interconnected but you don't realize it until you realize it. It's like I know when I see like a cottonwood for example that there's water running nearby or it's a really moisture rich environment because they like to grow where there's a lot of water. These red ones are called Indian paintbrush also known as prairie fire. Oh look, snow. A moth flew inside of my glasses. Absolutely pristine conditions. Perfect day to be out. Nice little breeze. Lots of sunlight. No storm clouds. Okay we've left the tree line coming up to the first little scramble section up here. This isn't too bad. It's pretty much just straight up and then I traverse a little bit that way. There's like a short but very exposed scramble on the side and then we get up to the ridge if I remember correctly. Once I get up here it's just like a big walk around the ridge. I'm following this line up here all the way over here and then back down the other side. Kind of crawling my way up here to the ridge. I need to go straight up but it looks like people are going this way. This is the last little scramble part here. It's a little bit exposed but it's short and sweet. Okay I didn't record the really steep part because I wanted to focus but I have hiked this mountain before maybe like three years ago and I know that this scramble is like well within my comfort zone and my ability level but I'm still moving super slow on the really steep parts. I'm trying to keep three points of contact at all times and taking really precise slow steps because at the end of the day I'm by myself on the edge of a cliff and the mountain doesn't care if I've been here before or if I'm comfortable. Really slow really precise no rush here. I've heard so many stories in the news lately over the past summer of people who are experienced hikers around here taking a wrong step or slipping on a regular day hike and falling and unfortunately passing away and it's a really unfortunate and stark reminder that the mountain doesn't care one little bit. Anything could happen. I don't know. I never take it lightly. Ridge line. We made it. Check out this bowl. Check out the river. It's a highway I drove in on. Super washboarded. All right we're in the loop. I'm pretty sure this is the false summit. This little tower here. The ridge dips down and then all the way back up there which I think is higher so we're gonna hit it on the way around. Anyway I'm not gonna try to pronounce this because I don't know how but this is my new favorite cheese. It has some kind of like ash on the rind. I don't know if it's a veggie ash or what. Tastes really good. Don't even think about it buddy. Sorry I can't share. I was eating up by that little tower and then the trail kind of scoops down and back up. We get a little more elevation. Lucky us. I've been sick for like two weeks straight. Basically bedridden the whole time and today is my first day back out in the world feeling sort of kind of healthy. It's a good feeling. Okay second peak in the bag. There we go. Crazy views. I got some pico de gallo in my car waiting for me in the cooler. It's gonna be so good. You can see little teeny tiny people. That's where I'm headed. A lichen to lichen. A moment to take it all in but it's kind of like speedy up here right now. I can kind of see what looks like evidence of an avalanche down there. There's still some snow left over but all the trees are just pushed over. Hey bear! Hi bear! Where the deer and the antelope play. Where seldom is heard a discouraging word. And the skies are not cloudy all day. Hey bear! Oh scat. Doesn't look very old. Hey bear! Where seldom is heard a discouraging word. I put you on a fork at some point and I took the wrong fork and then I saw bear poop. It's a little bit of scat. A skiddly dee bop boop bop scat. Hey bear! We're clearly in the line of the avalanche path. There's a ton of downed trees and they're still green. Not much of a trail at this time. Excuse me there mister. Sorry. Excuse me. Oh is this the trail? Yeah I think so. A bunny. I needed some pico stat. That was a pretty uneventful hike until the very end. There was like two kilometers left and I got a big cramp in my left butt but I had to see it through. Now we're driving. I've made it to my parking spot for tonight with some daylight to spare. It's only eight right now and I'm gonna start packing my big backpack for tomorrow. I'm heading out on an overnighter like backpacking trip first thing in the morning so I'm gonna pack now so I can just wake up and go.