Hike

We set out to go hiking yesterday. I had read about the hike from Sunrise Point down to Clover Lake and several other lakes and this was our goal. We have often looked down to Clover Lake from the point but never done the hike nor seen the rest of the string of lakes. We didn't yesterday either. The hike description mentioned that there were a couple of places where the hike back up was steep. Because I zoomed in on the lake this picture does not show how far down it is. We took one more look and changed our destination.

 Well, maybe not a destination as such, but a route. We headed up this trail along Sourdough Ridge. We have done this hike before, the entire distance. That time someone dropped us off at the point and we hiked all the way to Sunrise. Yesterday, not so much. Besides having a time crunch, we did not have a ride back and were not up to the entire round trip.

 This is the ridge looking back toward Sunrise Point. You can see the lake at the left and the white spot up to the right on the top is Sunrise Point parking lot. We had decided that what goes down must come up, and you can see how up that would have been. The ridge stretches from the point clear to above Sunrise--I think it is about six miles.

 Fall is fast arriving on the Mountain, and soon the road to Sunrise will close for the season. Yesterday was a brilliant warm sunny day, however, and some popular spots were very crowded. We didn't have a lot of traffic on the ridge trail, though.

 We probably hiked only about a mile and a half, then the trail started up the side of one of the peaks along the ridge and we decided that we would go back. It's not that we have anything against hills, but age and his cancer between the two of them can slow you down. Most of the wildflowers are spent, but these pussy toes lined the wall at the parking lot.

 Later we drove on up to Sunrise and took a stroll down to the Emmons Viewpoint. The parking lot was not the only place that drew a crowd. Can you see the no-see-ums? They were swarming in several places along the way.

 They didn't interfere with the view, though.

 Down into the White River Valley.

 Over to Little Tahoma Peak. (Little Tahoma Peak, if it were a mountain unto itself would be the third highest in Washington.)

 Bye Bye summer.