[ScottP]

Kevin , his son Zach and I reached the Minotaur Lake trailhead just about 10:00am. We were at the lake round 11:00 after some time spent with wicked heat and swarms of flies. We lounged and swam and ate, then went up onto the Minotaur/Theseus divide to find a campspot. We dropped packs, grabbed water and poles and walked up Labyrinth. At the summit, we noticed a small cumulonimbus cloud forming over Glacier Peak. Within ten minutes it had mushroomed into a fairly large one and we could now tell there was a fire to the southwest of the peak. We checked out snow patches between the main and east summits and then went back to our packs. We pumped water, ate and lounged in the shade for a couple hours. After dinner Zach grabbed a book and shelter in the megamid net. Kevin and I decided the bugs would be less of a menace if we walked. Refreshing beverage in hand, we began to amble around the lake. We followed a little trail and ended up on top of the south ridge of Labyrinth at the base of a little spire. Since it was such a stunning view, there was still plenty of sunlight and the hot temperature and bugs were relatively absent, we rambled on up the ridge to the summit, tagging the high points along the way. After dropping back to camp, we made more refreshing beverages and sat above the lake to watch the moon rise. Not long after climbing into my bivy sack and bag, a chorus of mosquitoes began probing the netting. Sleep was long in coming and fragmented. I woke before six to lightning, approaching thunder, a strong breeze and, within minutes, large raindrops. 10 minutes of cloudburst-like rain and the drops stopped. The temperature dropped and then rose again within 5 minutes. The sunrise proved to be spectacular what with all the smoke and moisture in the air. Someone proposed that we go do breakfast in Skykomish to rid our selves of the bugs that seemed bent on some sort of revenge. We saw some smoke hovering about on the road across the valley soon after we started driving. Not far from the high point of the road we saw a small, smouldering fire up in the dense trees. We also saw smoke in the vicinity of Yodelin. A stop at the ranger station east of Skykomish netted us not even an emergency number on the kiosk or door. After breakfast, we tried the Skykomish Fire Department, but they were elsewhere. As we were leaving town the volunteer fire siren started to wail. I hope they were responding to the smouldering fire we saw.