WalkingCarrot

The morning found us walking right on the divide, along a wooded ridge with lots of short ups and downs. Eventually as the ridge got higher we broke out above the trees with views all around.

As the divide turned north it dropped into the first of two “Knife Edges”. The first was really more of a “butter knife”, slighty rounded on top. At the end of this ridge the trail took to a contour on the east side of the divide, going in and out of several high basins. Occasional elk and mule deer were in the basin grazing on the lush green grass and having wildflowers for dessert.

We took an early lunch in the last basin before the “steak knife” edge (this one was seriously serrated). The thunderheads had come on early and it was raining in many places. A big rumbler was organizing itself right on top of the divide, right above us and in close proximity to where the trail topped out the knife’s edge. Not a good place to get caught in a storm. It’s hard to “bail off” downhill when it’s a sheer drop. So we waited, ate lunch, waited some more. Finally the worst of the storm cell moved on taking the thunder and lightning with it, but leavings us some light rain to walk in.

And so would the afternoon go, walk some, wait some, get rained on some. The storms seemed more numerous and the rain more widespread today. We managed to get back up and over a major ridge or two, following the trail as it moved back close to the crest.

Dropping into Squaw pass we saw three moose off in the distance in the willows just above Squaw creek and, later on, we saw another moose in the basin above Squaw Creek. This latter one was about 100 yards away and seemed very intrigued by us, following our moves closely. None of the moose seemed to mind the rainy day which left the willows all wet. Walking along the trail, the willows would keep us soaked even when it wasn’t raining. But, again, the moose don’t mind.

We pushed on late into the evening trying to make up for miles lost, waiting out storms. We managed to get to a high lake basin just before dark and camped on a bench above it.

16 miles