Day 2. A Little Bit of Everything. June 22, 2016.

Lower Tent Meadow to the Largest Horseshoe Lake, 10,500ft.

12.5 miles. 5:30 am to 5:30pm

I slept so well last night. I was very tired and it was perfect sleeping temperature.

Trail, off trail easy walking, off trail boulder hopping, snow and a little more trail. We had it all today.

We left the trail after 3 miles and headed to Grouse Lake. There were 2 tents there. That’s the closest to seeing other humans so far. Then we climbed up to Grouse Lake Saddle.

We crossed our first snow fields on the other side of the saddle. The snow was plenty soft and we all postholed a few times. But the soft snow mostly made it easy.

We ate lunch in a flat area before the final climb up to Goat Crest Saddle. Rockin and Wired hid from the sun under their umbrellas.

Goat Crest Saddle had more great views on top.

The descent to Glacier Lakes was more challenging. We crossed more snow and had to avoid some big drops.

We descended to Glacier Valley and walked along the meadow until we intersected with States Trail. We were on this most of the rest of the day. We often lost it but always found it again.

Now we are camped at the largest Horseshoe Lake. The mosquitos drove me into the tent early but I have a great view. And it feels really good to be off my feet. I almost missed the alpenglo but jumped out of my tent just in time.

I want to improve my map and compass navigation. We have challenged ourselves to not use our gps apps unless we absolutely need to. Today we turned them on zero times.