I hiked almost to Reed Lakes today with Iulian's grandfather, who's visiting for a couple of weeks from Moldova. (I'm not sure how to spell his name, it's pronounced "Lorentine.") If you look at the picture above, there's a big grey rock mountain in the back in the middle (snowy peak just to the left of it.) There's a long green slope from the right side of the pic, across the bottom of the grey mountain. Right in the middle are some tiny white spots above the green. They are rushing water falls. We went up a little ways into the valley at the bottom of the grey mountains. (It would be so much easier if I had a software program at home that let me draw on the picture, wouldn't it?) The ponds in front are beaver engineered, but we didn't see any out.
We didn't get all the way for two reasons. First, the dirt road from Hatcher Pass Road, was barred, so we had an extra 2.3 miles to go each way. Second, after climbing through the rocks - you'll see them below - when we saw the train was still so wet and snowy here and there that it meant more rocks, boulders really, we decided enough was enough.
Those rocks sitting on the tundra are the size of large moving vans.
Didn't get a chance to try to look up what kind of mushroom this is. About 2 inches tall, about three inches across the top (this was the biggest and strangest of the half dozen we saw), and on the edge between the sandy trail and the grass.
This 'swimming hole' was where we turned around. It looked so inviting - clear, slow moving water, about 6-10 feet deep. Except for the ice chunks still floating here and there.
But that was ok, Lorentine had already washed his feet in equally cold water earlier.
All in all, we did about 10 miles (16km) round trip. If you are wondering why 'mental health' is one of the labels, then you haven't spent a day in the wilderness for a while.
