[Dante]

. . . but I made do without the bug hat (that doesn't mean I didn't complain, though). I'd bet money they'll be bad in the Necklace Valley, too. Once I covered myself in Uncle Ben's 100 (95% DEET and 5% "other active ingredients" and realized they weren't biting me I was fine (as long as they stayed out of my nose, mouth, ears, eyes, etc.) I'm hoping to get out this weekend--either the end of the middle fork or the Spade lake area, depending on the e-mail's waiting for me at work. The yard-and-house-work backlog is only growing, though . . .

[E-rock]

[Vine Maple Victim]

Missoula, MT here I come! That's my weekend plans...moving in to my dorm.

[ajgoodkids]

Foss Lakes. With another BPing family with kids. You haven't seen a party until you've seen alpine-happy, same-age kids hiking and camping together. Do they have a good time? High energy synnnnnerrrggggy!!!!

[Bushwacker]

Looking at Snow, Gem, Upper and Lower Wildcat Lakes. But could be opting for Peek-A-Boo or Mallardy Ridge. Rumor has it that snow is still at Mallardy. Anyone heard anything? Bw

[ajgoodkids]

Only debris from one skookum avalanche. No big deal and no ice axe needed. Just traverse it and you'll pick up the trail again.

[Bushwacker]

Sounds real good......thanks Have a great time at Foss! BW

[Hiker Boy]

Ah hah! So that's where you and Marmot have dissapeared to! The mosquitoes aren't nearly as bad as the black flies are.

[Backpacker Joe]

Dante and I did the loop that included Peggys pond, circle lake, venus lake, and Spade lake. We then dropped down into waptus, hiked past Waptus, waded the outlet and took Trail Creek back to the Squaw lake trail and returned to the Hyas lake parking lot. The weather was fantastic. The views from Circle and Venus were fantastic. We saw a few people, though not many. Fine trip. TB

[Otter]

sounds like everyone had some great plans! H.B., ya found me! LoL! We thought of you often ... how was LAke Ann? We ended up going to the North Cascades for a first time looksie..and oh my we are itching to get back! It was so darn beautiful. And we didn't even get a chance to hike the high country all that much. We also hit the rock over at Mazama and that proved to be a great day of climbing...once again climbers proved t o be one of the friendliest bunch out there! Met a lot of really nice folks. I am forseeing many a hike in the N. Cascades in the future! I really would love to do the pct from Rainy pass to Harts Pass...but don't know if it could be done still this year without ending up in the snow...the weather was really changing up there allready. But looks doable three days aprox 10 mile days.. mainly ridge walking. Any one ever done this hike?

[rubberlegs]

The PCT from Rainy to Harts is great stuff. It should be just fine for the next month, barring some strange snow dump. Any snow falling this week will melt very fast. The thruhikers are going through now, and make for interesting conversations (short, they are often in a hurry by the end).

[Hiker Boy]

Otter, I want to do that route too and perhaps all the way north to Manning.

[Otter]

HB- It's funny you mention that...marmot and I were going over the possibility of doing that rout for the trip later this september.. but it might be tight with only three days. Marmot might be able to get off for part of the day the friday before but to make it work we would all be bushed shuttling cars and so on in a rush Friday night. We did think about it though. One that is a little shorter is the rout from White pass to Chinook pass that is also suposed to be quite lovely..and a little lower elevation and much easier to shuttle cars. What ya think?

[strider]

Goona take a stroll up the West fork of the Foss Saturday morning, and wander around up there until Tuesday or so. If ya see a geezer with an umbrella, say Hi. Say Hi even if you don't see an umbrella (grin). Weather's supposed to be great, probably won't need it....

[Hiker Boy]

I'll be there!