[Sore Feet]

I was originally trying to coax my mom into backpacking, but she was adament about having a campfire, so we ended up car camping at Ipsut Creek instead, and doing a couple of day hikes. We were gonna camp at the Carbon River camp near Cataract Creek, but ended up doing the loop to the glacier in a day. We started out around noon, and got up the first two miles of the trail pretty quick, just under an hour. Decided to take the Northern Loop trail first, so we crossed the river at the Lower Carbon Crossing, where oddly enought, the bridges were not even being lapped by the river (first time I'd ever seen that) and headed up the east side of the river. Another 10 minutes put us at Spukwush Creek, where I intended to climb up to photograph the elusive Alice Falls. I dropped my pack and started climbing next to the creek. After about 150-200 vertical feet, there was a particluarly steep part where I opted to climb the forested slope next to the creek, rather than go up the mossy boulders. Mistake. As I was reaching for a tree trunk, I noticed a bee buzzing around my foot, did a double take and saw about 6 more come out of a hole in the ground. In around a millisecond, I uttered some profanities, and jumped and slid down about 20 feet of the hill, flailing my arms to try to get rid of the little terds, yet they still got me twice. Yellowjackets I think, because they hurt. Needless to say, I bagged Alice Falls. Back on the trail, we headed for the Glacier and some lunch, found a nice rock bench in another 45 minutes, right next to the toe of the glacier. Nice and chilly up there. Didn't witness any big landslides or calving of the glacier, but there were rocks tumbling down the face every few minutes or so. After lunch, I jaunted up to Dick Creek to investigate another possible waterfall, but anything that is there is way up the canyon, and the weather was already looking pretty ugly, so I booked, snapping some more pics of the glacier on the way down. Crossed the suspension bridge and checked out the Carbon River camp before heading back to the trailhead. Nice sites, plenty of room, I'll be staying here in the future. Shortly after passing the Northern Loop juntion on the way down, it started raining. Great. Bee stings, cold temperatures and now rain. Couldn't get any better. Oh, but it could. About 1/3 of the mile from the trailhead, something I ate started to disagree with my stomach, and it decided it wanted to leave my body NOW, not in 10 minutes. So, clinching my as best I could, I made it back to the trailhead and went straight for the john. Not a bad hike at all, got some great pictures, but certainly not the high point of my summer. Pics soon.

[MooseAndSquirrel]

Yikes! Yellowjackets, rain & the Trots- bummer (no pun intended). Maybe you were lucky you weren't doing any of the trails out of Sunrise 'cause I don't know how in the hell you could find any sliver of privacy out there if an emergency situation like that came up. I gotta do that Carbon glacier thang one of these days, at least to cross that darn suspension bridge you always see and hear about.