August 17 - A Grueling Day - Glacier Peak

August 17 - A Grueling Day - Glacier Peak

The day started out relatively dry, meaning no actual rain, but enveloped in cloud. Like at my sister Sherri's house in the Bay Area clouds move in and the trees rain huge drops. Everything else is wet with dew. The Northern Cascades are like that too. So within minutes of packing up and leaving I stopped to don my rain gear. No English did the same. That kept us from being drenched by the tree rain and the dew drops. Close to noon the skies cleared and we were able to shift to normal cool weather hiking clothes. For me that's a thin wool tee-shirt, shorts, hat, and gloves. On the up hills I sweat like a dog and on the downhills I enjoy a cool drying breeze. By the end of the day we had climbed and descended over 5000 feet on some incredibly steep trails. Most of our 24 miles was flat. 

As I write this I'm not quite sure what to do. I can see the mist rolling in. We're camped at 5834 feet elevation, which is pretty high for northern Washington. If I close up my tent I'll get condensation on the inside as the outside of the tent cools causing my hot breath to condense. If I don't close it up the cloud could coat the entire tent, inside and out, and everything in it. If I leave it open and the cloud dissipates I could end up dry all over. Oh what to do?

Unfortunately we walked past Glacier Peak today and never saw it due to clouds. In the afternoon we were too close to see it. Maybe tomorrow. 

Clouds moving by. 

Our best view of Glacier Peak. 

Flowers I've never seen before. 

Selfie of the day. 

NoEnglish ready to go. 

Crossing a broken bridge which has fallen into a glacial stream. 

Hikingsolo (aka Allen)