We woke to smoky skies again on Tuesday, August 21st,
which at least offered us some cool sun views.
Today’s destination was Appleton Junction. Since we didn’t think to get a picture of the
trail coming down yesterday, we got some pics of the mile trail out of Lunch
Lake today – now going up. (Which is much easier, quite honestly.) We hit the
trail around 9:30 for a seven mile, approx. 3000 ft elevation change day.
Now we were back on the main trail and heading to the High Divide
portion which is where we were supposed
to have amazing views of Mt. Olympus (the highest point in the park). Alas, due
to the smoke, there were no views today…..
But there was bear grass and other wildflowers
We hit some switch backs going up in elevation at the start
of the hike
And saw some mountain goats along the trail.Yes, they’re collared.
At the end of the season the mountain goats are being relocated to the
Cascades in Washington as they are not native to the area and they are ruining
the native flora.
We continued out hike with the goats leading the way for a
while
Arriving at Heart Lake around 1:30 where we filled our water
and had a light lunch
(Pro Bars!)
From Heart Lake the downward hiking began
And we finally arrived at Appleton Junction at 4:30 pm.
This was a HUGE site for just one tent and two people….. We
had our sleeping area...
Laundry area
Shoe/hiking pole area
Lounging/dining area
Bear can area
Watering area
Pooping area
Onto day 3!
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