I spent a couple nights on the saddle above Lake Ann in the Teanaway. I started my hike early afternoon on the 16th. It was raining a little but no big deal my tent is four season. I'm going to test it out under some snow load this winter . Anyway, the light rain stopped just long enough for me to set up my tent.
L.L. Bean Mountain Guide
There wasn't much to see or do in the fog on the saddle. Every once in a while the clouds would part to give me a ghostly view of the mountains. I realized I had no water to rehydrate my dinner so I went down below the clouds to the lake to filter some water. After the step grade to the saddle I was ready for some grub.
Dinner cooked and ate inside my tent.
Bedtime came early because I had nothing to occupy my time except my thoughts . You Backpackers know what I'm talking about. Early to bed early to rise and I still got a good 11 hours. lol That morning the clouds had settled into the Fortune Creek valley and all the surrounding valleys. All I could see looking west was the cascade crest above a sea of clouds. Nice . Too far away for a good picture with my low budget camera. I did however get a nice shot of Esmerelda Basin filling with cloud. Very cool.
I watched this cloud creep over Esmerelda Peaks into Esmerelda Basin.
After breakfast I left for Van Epps Mine to see whats what. The trail was nice and very scenic despite the fog.
Fall Color
All was well until I came across motorcycle tracks on my foot and horse traffic only trail . This part of the County Line trail meets a 4x4 road that you hike for about two miles to the mine. Just before Van Epps Pass I turned around to snap this cool shot. My camp was on the saddle just right of center. By this time the clouds had blown out of the valley.
Fortune Creek Valley from Van Epps Pass.
The road down to the mine from the pass was very steep, I didn't look forward to the return trip. This is the view of Van Epps Creek valley from the pass.
Van Epps Creek Valley
The only picture I took at the mine was a shaft that I couldn't see the bottom of . Creeeepy!
Creepy mine shaft.
Back to camp and the 17th ended much the same as the 16th. Sunday the 18th was beautiful. Windy and not a cloud in the sky. I took my time packing up camp and spent an hour sucking up the views before I left for the trailhead. Here ya go...
Rainier, Hawkins and camp. My four season L.L. Bean Mountain Guide tent completes this picture. I love my tent.
Fortune Creek Valley. My four season L.L. Bean Mountain Guide tent completes this picture. I love my tent.
Lake Ann
Sticker on the back of my 1970 Volkswagen Westfalia: Jesus Is My Airbag
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Sticker on the back of my 1970 Volkswagen Westfalia: Jesus Is My Airbag
I don't know what they mined there. I did drop a pebble in and did no hear a thing. My picture is deceiving. You can't tell but the shaft was deep. I couldn't get my camera straight over the hole so it looks shallow.
Can anyone tell me why all those Warning messages are there?? I know it has something to do with my pics and flickr .
Sticker on the back of my 1970 Volkswagen Westfalia: Jesus Is My Airbag
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Sticker on the back of my 1970 Volkswagen Westfalia: Jesus Is My Airbag
The warning message resulted because you made the pictures private. I've put in a work around to ignore the error messages when flickr rejects our requests for thumbnail size, etc. on private pictures, but to minimize other issues you may want to avoid making them private.
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