[Larry]

Alan, a five-star image from the 'reflection only' shot at Reflection Lake! The vegetation in the water breaks it up nicely, and adds a lot of interest and texture. As always, 'less is more'...the least complex image in the group is the best, at least to me. Nice shot.

[McPilchuck]

Nice shots! Interesting...I was up to the Stevens/Van Trump Historical Memorial -Sluiskin Falls (rock sofa) which I sat at for quite some time talking to the tourists, occasionally asking them if they had any cigars or whiskey <grin> (a Trail Blazers joke) yesterday for the view, via Lakes Trail from Reflection Lake. Saw the smoke, too. Lots of Blueberries ripe on trail up, deer,bear, and blue grouse sightings. The mountain eventually socked in with clouds, rained on the way home. McPil

[Alan Bauer]

Thanks for the polite photo comments guys. McPil---there were monster amounts of berries still along the Pinnacle Peak trail likewise which surprised me considering the quantity of hikers that trail must get. Also, I saw 4 blue grouse up high near the saddle roaming around. Pika getting all grumpy at me. One huge bear scat pile on a side-trail from the saddle 1/4 mile west. No whiskey up my way either. Just views of smoke to the south, a mountain to the north, and my bad smellin' shirt.

[Tsolo]

I was up in this area about a week ago, climbing Pinnacle and Plummer peaks. The great little tarn on the N side of Plummer has dried up for the year, several weeks earlier than usual. It's just a short distance W of the saddle and usually worth a visit: http://www.artwolfe.com/cgi-bin/shop/detail.cgi?r=DP118 It seems that waytrails run along the ridge in both E and W directions for quite a way; on my next trip up there I intend to explore them more. One last item -- it's surprising to me that the little basin just S of the saddle is full of granite (the W side of Plummer seems to be all granite, and has sloughed off in enormous quantities). It seems so out of place around Rainier, where most of the rock is pretty ugly. I also noticed that the short section of Wonderland from the Summerland TH towards White River CG has some large granite extrusions along the way. I guess all of this must be from earlier geology before Rainier's eruption. Does anyone else have a theory?

[Alan Bauer]

Yup, I went to that tarn...and it is just sand and meadow. Will need to retry that again next year. The side-trails branching out from Pinnacle Saddle make this area a very fun place to go. Good point on that granite south of the saddle---I noted that as well on Saturday. I don't know much why that would be however.