Monday, August 23, 2010

Across the Bob—Day 8

On Day 8, I hiked south along the base of the north wall.




Even on exposed slopes at high altitude, the wildflowers were abundant.

The purple flowers are wild chives.  They have a very strong onion smell.




Day 8 had several cold rain showers interspersed with periods of sun.  I thought it would be a coin toss whether I got hypothermia or heat exhaustion.

Herd of mountain goats living on the cliffs of the north wall.






The southern portion of the trail passes through an old burned area from the 1988 Gates Park fire.

Grouse chick.


American kestrel.

2 comments:

  1. awesome pics Cliff. is the trail always well marked? it appears traveled well enough to keep it visible or do they normally maintain it? did you pull a 'survivorman' and use some of the wild vegitation for supper?

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  2. Thanks, D. The trails are usually easy to see. The Forest Service keeps them maintained when they have the budget for it, which is not always. The trail disappeared in a few places in the deep backcountry, and there was an occasional unmarked trail junction that wasn't on the map, so I had to rely on my mapreading and terrain association skills to find the route in a few places.

    I usually try to leave the vegetation for the critters who will need it to get through the hard winter, but I couldn't pass up a patch of wild raspberries I found on one of the trails. I got some pics of that, but it was on something like Day 12 or 13, so I haven't posted those yet.

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