June 16

875-898

Today was almost a mirror image of yesterday. 5600 feet of gain, 5400 feet of loss, all at elevations between 9-11,000 feet.

The trail has taken a step back in intensity, but remains quite difficult. Our feet remained wet for most of the day with dozens of river crossings.

One particular crossing led is straight into a overflowing lake, which made me laugh a lot. Amber did not find it quite as funny as she was doused to her belly button in ice cold water.

Silver pass, the pass we climbed today, reached a hair under 11,000 feet. The upper basin held a ton of snow and we ended up walking in circles for an hour trying to find the route down.

Every time we thought we found our route, we dead ended at a cliff.

In the melting snow we are seeing an interesting phenomenon. Refered to as ‘glacial blood’ or The less ominous ‘watermelon snow’ the snow is stained bright red from the growth of algae.

The algae is said to make hikers sick, but I have never had a problem drinking snowmelt. The Red coloring reduces the reflective quality of the white snow and leads to up to 15% faster melt. Historical explorers, before much was known about this phenomenon, saw it as a very ominous sign.

As we set up camp, swarms of mosquitos descend upon us. For the first time in this trip, we have to put our head nets on. All the standing water is prime breeding ground for mosquitos.