Borrowed kitties were sleeping when I left. Rented a car and spent two hours interrogated at the border.
Gary is my kind of best friend. Dust on the rental car. Spent two hours cleaning off when I returned.
11 am, after a night of no moon and the star shower and the milkey way and the most stars I have ever seen. Notice everything is burnt. Stars shining through snags.
You can drive up to the highest pass in Washington State (it leads to a mine on the other side)
Just need some Chalets, and it would be Suisse!
The work starts.
Gary has this fancy camera. This is when we start to get serious, descend down 2000 feet, then up another 2000.
Down from Slate Pass. We go down that valley, middle fork of Pasaytan. Up like way down there to the right. Lago is that thing above the ridge, I can see it. I has a small snowfield below the summit.
I remember coming back up this. A couple asked if I needed help.
I work on this plant, supposidly.
Dwarf hukleberries, Gary said the best way to eat them is to shoot a grouse that eats them, then (no comment). They (not him) then has the grouse for dinner. The berries are way too small for human consumption.
Dead trees, everywhere. Not just forest fires, but bugs and fungi. Global changes?
Another huckleberry. Huckleberries have single fruits, while Blueberries have multiple fruits.
We stayed here the first night, Fred's lake. I was exhausted. The next day is 800 feet up to that blue spot.
Above Fred's lake, the second day about 10 am. Looking west. Notice the forest fire smoke from BC (not my fault).
On the crest almost seeing Mt. Lago. Gary is getting excited!
Mt Lago appears! Its the thing in the middle of the pic. With a small snowpatch below the summit. Gary had this ambitious plan to actually go through that col on the left and climb the backside. After he took a poop, he realized.
On the trail, which Gary realized we should take to make the trip on time. I think that is BlackCap mtn. Gary correct me.
We are getting there, lots of rock and scree after leaving the trail. This is the sister peak of Lago, Mt. Carru (8595 feet). Lago is better (8745 feet). I have to recite American measures.
Gary took this pic of me. I was out of breath above 6500 feet.
top!
Gary at the top. Looking NW.
Looking directly west. Mt. Baker in the distance. The clouds helped making things cool for us. They are kind of trippy.
We have to descend into this hell of rock and avalance debris. But the view was incredible!
Goodbye Shellrock pass. (can you figure out where the pass would be?) . Blackcap mtn on the right. Looking east from the summit.
Looking north from the summit, that might be Ptarmigan peak (8614 ft). Everthing is burned in the valleys below.
Going down! I almost crashed five times. Another 16 miles and several thousand feet up/down. Reward: Mt Lago.
Lago is back there, but we go up and down to get there.
