Mileage 14
So much happened today! We woke up, walked on some snow, and then the snow stopped! We had miles upon miles of blissful, snowless trail that descended lazily through bright green maples, with thick vegetation leaning out over the trail. It was incredibly lush. Then, we climbed almost 2000 feet to reach Lake Ivanhoe. At the lake, we took a few minutes and I went for a dip. It was just about as cold as it looked. I swam to a floating iceberg and sunned myself before we headed out. By this time we were again in the snow. We walked around Lake Ivanhoe, traversing a steep slope on the north end. We emerged at Dutch Miller Gap and hiked down through increasingly lush forest. The first part of the decent was down a massive avalanche chute. Giant trees lay splintered everywhere, smashed entirely to bits like toothpicks. The event that caused such profound carnage must have been truly awesome to witness. Before long, we had reached a lush, green, enchanted-looking forest with rivers and waterfalls everywhere. Through the tops of the trees, we could just barely see the golden crest of the mountains, still illuminated by the sun's fading rays. We're camped between who knows how many rivers, in a clearing amidst this gorgeous forest. Weather was awesome. Nothing but sunshine. I didn't even put my rain fly on! Whoa, Nelly! The body held up pretty well. Most of my right foot is coming off. I'll have to tend to it more often. Other than that, things are great. Navigating in the snow without a trail took longer than anticipated, so we didn't make all 18 miles we had planned. No matter. Hot springs tomorrow!
Standing break!
Cathedral peak? Or maybe just fog.
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