August 19- Sky Pond - 10 miles - 2450 feet elevation gain
Another beautiful destination. A hike to do over again. On this hike we split the group at the Loch as some wanted to fish for a while. Others then took a detour up towards Andrews Glacier to see if they could determine conditions. Then the fishermen joined us between Glass Lake and Skypond, and then stayed at Glass Lake on the descent to fish some more.
Along for this fun jaunt was Dad, Shannon, Kevin, Brandon, Leanne, Melissa, Brianna, Laura, Trent, and Miranda
This was the first hike where the route finding came undone and a "little" off route scrambling came into play.
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| Starting out, we took the fire trail which saves .6 miles one way |
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| Brianna, Melissa, Leanne, Laura, Miranda, Shannon |
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| Trent, Brandon, Dad, Kevin |
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| Onward and Upward, a constant theme in the mountains |
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| Stay to the inside!! |
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| Break time |
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| Donny and Leanne on a switchback |
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| FISH!!!! Quick, get a pole!!! |
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| Missy trying to keep an eye on the fish and assemble the pole at the same time........ |
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| The Loch |
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| We leave the fish people at the loch and continue on. |
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| On the way to check out Andrews |
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| Back from not getting to Andrews, and now have to climb 285 feet, partially up a waterfall to get to Glass Lake |
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| Keep hiking.... Don't complain. |
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| Nice Area........ |
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| Looking back down at the Loch, the fisherman are there somewhere. |
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| Starting up the waterfall. This proved to be quite tricky. One spot had some people turning around. We talked each other thru the different moves, showing where to put hands and feet. |
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| After ascending the waterfall we are greeted with Glass lake. This is where things started to get more fun! In the view above, I (Dad) mistakenly assumed that SkyPond was at the flat ridge line in the center of the picture. Maybe some 300 to 400 feet up. I remembered reading that you go climbers right of the lake, and so we headed up. |
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| Up and down and around, we soon were hundreds of feet above Glass lake. |
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| Hum... Maybe, maybe we didn't have to come this high, but no use crying about it, lets try to get there from here. |
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| Careful Shannon, watch your step |
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| Making our own trail |
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| Follow the leader, there has to be a lake somewhere. |
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| Lean into the wall, it feels safer |
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| Oops, Looks like SkyPond is way, way down there. Leanne begins to pull her hair out over her father in laws' route finding follies!!! |
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| Skypond.... Miranda trying to tell Dad it wasn't all his fault we got off the trail. |
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| On the shore, time for a break |
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| Rugged but pretty |
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| On our way back, this is Glass Lake again. Nice easy trail to follow along the shore, heh, heh, heh |
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| Time for some more fishing |
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| Laura with a nice catch |
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Matt Pietila came up from the Springs to fish with Travis.
Bumped into the two of them on the way down at the Loch |
