[wolfs]

Drove up to Windy Pass in the very early morning to catch the Perseids at 3AM. Good sky view from up there (one of the few good things you can say about clearcuts, I guess). Definitely saw the predicted 40/hour in the hour or so I watched before dawn creeped in and then I took a nap in the back of the car. Waking up (only sorta refreshed) I figured here I was at a trailhead, may as well fire up some coffee and go hike it before work. PCT through here and under Silver is such a nice trail - easy grade and cool, some nice flowers in wetter spots. A few insignificant snow patches and some mud. From the cairn and to the ridge hardly any snow and trail in good shape (less mud than you'd think). From ridge on a few more snowpatches again minor, don't even really need poles. Great flowers in the flower gardens up high on Silver with many species going at once, particularly lupine arnica harebell and phlox. Plus heather. Once again the Silver summit was one of the buggiest summits imaginable; they weren't even that bad on way up, but at summit, it was maddening. So stay was short. BTW found some sunglasses up there; if they're yours PM me with make info etc. Good view Rainier. Something I'd always wanted to try was up and over to make a loop, by going down the winter/scramble route on the N ridge and into NE basins. This is definitely steeper but still in the class 2 domain. A little bit of prickly trees to contend with as you traverse. Managed to stay on trail til the false summits I usually skitour to, from there on either the trail was on ridge and didn't see, or just petered out in talus. I could see some kind of trail well down the basin so just beelined to it. The least pleasant part was various heather sidehills needed to connect talus areas, slippery; the talus itelf was not bad walking. Finally connected with the trail in the spot I knew I needed to connect to it again, by following cairns into the forest strip that's above the clearcut but below the basins. This leads to the head of the rough road atop of clearcut nd then you just walk the road back to regular TH and parking area. Took longer than descending the main trail would have. Can't necessarily recommend as a better alternative, although seeing it from that side in summer and increased solitude were both pluses, and it did feel more like a scramble/adventure than a hike. 4 cars at TH when I returned. No pix unfortunately since the entire hike idea was sort a spur de moment after meteor watching so didn't have camera along.

[The Angry Hiker]

[DIYSteve]

Sounds like a fun day, wolfs. Is there sufficient snow in the N bowls to get some ski turns in?

[wolfs]

[DIYSteve]