[peppersteak'n'ale]

This turned out to be a good choice for today, as I needed something to help me get conditioned, but nothing overly difficult. Stream crossings seem to rule this trail right now. The first low-elevation stream crossing was nothing to speak of, but the second crossing at the first waterfall above the switchbacks took a little more effort

The snowfield has entirely collapsed leaving a 15 foot deep gash with one very weak looking ice bridge left to cross. I wound up scrambling to the base of the snowfield and scrambling back up roots and mud to catch the trail on the other side. King Kong's shower bath was running strong, too

Further up, I caught a strange scene happening on Cadet Peak

I don't want to speculate, but it appears this cloud may have been falling in love with the mountain Silvertip Peak was looking good as usual and there were some interesting snowfields on the side of the Gemini Peaks

I never made it to the basin itself, but turned around at the last stream crossing, which was still basically a snowfield with a stream running under it. I didn't want to be the first to punch through even though I saw another hiker cross without any difficulty. I only saw two other hikers all day - one guy who had camped up there overnight and another who looked like he just bagged Del Campo, or something. Great day to be outside.

[GeoTom]

That stream crossing where the snow collapsed was intact when we went on June 25. Dani (my wife) said then that she didn't thgink it would hold much longer. Glad you had a nice day.