[Hulksmash]

Sign

When the news that Fs 63 was reopened i new i had to go. At first the plan was to do W cady to benchmark mtn. It was something i've wanted to do for some time. But i also wanted to overnight at Blanca lake. At the last minute is chose Blanca. On top of overnight gear, i decide to pack a raft as well. Do some fishing, and easy route to the north end of the lake I arrived at the trail head just after 10am. At first my pack didn't seem that heavy. But after the last winter's blow downs it felt like a refrigirator loaded with lead bricks.

trail 4

trail 3

I've included a pic from a previous post for scale

The good news. The smaller ones have been removed, or limbed, this makes it easier to navigate. But still the monsters remain. They can be a challange to scramble over. The impact crater from one has made a nice trail. It's probably a good thing Backpacker Joe changed his plans. I imagine scrambling over these would not be easy on mending ribs On the trip up, i was passed by a day hiker, like i was standing still. With my over loaded pack, i wasn't breaking any speed records. Still i huffed and puffed up the trail like a overloaded steam locamotive.

trail 2

The Trail

face

glacier peak

Four and a half hours later i reached vergin lake. This was a relief Blanca is all down hill from here.

virgin lake

virgin lake 2

This is the cleanest i've ever seen vergin lake. This "lake" is just a permenant snow melt pool. There's no outlet or inlet. I would think twice before drinking from this stagnant pond, even if it was filtered, treated with iodine, and boiled. Still i didn't break any speed records traveling the section from vergin lake, to Blanca. I spend an additional hour on this section.

Blanca1

Once i reached the shore, i inflated my raft, and "cooked" some lunch. Ummm. Mountian House Rasberry Crumble. Now i not a huge fan of freeze dried food. But this stuff is good! I says it seves four. Good thing i was solo, cause there would have been a fight, if i had to share.

shoe shot

One raft, about $40 plus pain and agony of packing it. Floating in a lake with this view...priceless Now, the lumisant quality of the water must been seen to be believed. No photo can capture the three dementional quality. It was as if, someone placed enourmous emrald green flood lights at the bottom of the lake.

one bedroom condo with a view

There was a couple on the other side of the outlet, who had there tent pitched. Around six pm the packed up and left. About a half hour later, i heard a sound that at first i though was a frog. I realized, it was not a frog. It was something like a cross between a weeze and a bark.

Trouble3

Trouble2

Trouble

Here's the falls on the north end of the lake zoomed in

Falls

Scrooge, i think i read something about wanting a zoomed in photo of columbia glacier.

columbia glacier

At dusk i settled in to my tent

Sunset at Blanca

Around 11pm i was visited by the otter again. I could see the silouett of his body undulated like a slinky, in the light from my lantern. Curious little guy. Suddenly he darted back into the lake. A few minutes later, i heard voices. A pair of climbers, had traversed the east ridge of the lake, and down climbed via columbia glacier. I found it entertaining to watch them cross the outlet via moon light and head lamps. One of them made it accross with out getting wet. The other did not. Since i was up i decided to see if i could get a photo with moon light only.

night at blanca

This is a thirty second exposure. The only way i can get a longer exposure is with a remote timer. I settled back to my tent. I didn't sleep well. I could not find a good position for my head. Still in search of a decent camp pillow. Dawn. I crawled out of my tent, to find a deflated raft, with muddy otter paw prints all over it. It was no use to me now. I packed it up. Yea! cold wet vinyl I had a descision to make, scramble around the the lake, or pack my overload out before the heat of the day. I chose pack out. Here's my morning parting photo

departing blanca

The trip up to virgin lake only took fourty five minutes. This was good time with that load. I continued down from here with out takeing a break. A few switch backs down from the top i smelled smoke. Then i saw this mess

unattended fire

An unattended fire! With pastic bags, containg food! I used all of my drinking water snuffing it out. Then i smothered it the best i could. I picked out the trash to pack out. With not being able do anything else, i continued down the trail. Then i found more trash.

trail trash

Now hulk angry. Assuming i was not far behind the litter bugs i started to run down the trail. There was trail of trash left behing them. I stoped only to pick up more of there trash. Just before reaching the trail head, i head a car start, and leave. At the trail head there was more trash left on the gorund It only took me thirty minutes after putting out the fire to reach the trail head. I have a few choice words for these litter bugs!

[Backpacker Joe]

Great report Hulkster. Nice pics too. Damn, litter bugs in the out of doors SUX! Thanks for picking the stuff up. It would have been nice to confront them. Idiots leaving a fire going. When I got to the trail head yesterday (yes I got there THEN decided to do the Greiders ) there was a mid eighties brown Toyota short bed 4x2 truck, a red Ford Ranger extra cab short bed with a dog carrier in the bed, an early 2000's Toyota extra cab short bed Tundra and a white two door Suzuki side kick in the parking lot. It must have been one of those they were driving. Bastards.

[Trevor]

Thanks for the report! The idiocy that permits leaving garbage in the outdoors is also the same idiocy that permits eating packaged country-fried steak.

[Hulksmash]

How did you miss the black jeep I don't remember the mid eighty brown toyota. The tundra, ranger, and sidekick were there when i parked there. The only car left was the sidekick when i retuned to the TH. They were camped above virgin lake.

[run4cache]

It was fun seeing you there when we crossed the stream. As we were hiking out (around midnight) we came across the people who left the trash. They had a tent set up in the middle of the trail. They also had newspaper strewn along the trail. Great photos!

[run4cache]

[wolfs]

Nice otter! Seeing an otter up at Tuck Lake once, and actually swimming around while it was sharing the lake with me, is one of my most memorable backcountry experiences ever. I actually saw panicky fish swim by me, the otter was pretty much putting the fear in every fish in that lake. They were probably hatchery fish, not used to that kind of real-world test of their survival skills.

[Hulksmash]

The trash is all gone now. Except for one piece, it might have been used for TP. No touchy.

[touron]

Nice otter pictures!

[Hulksmash]

Well. The mid eightys brown toyota must have belonged to the day hiker who passed me. I had camp set up by the time he returned from his scramble up by the glacier. He left before the couple who camped on the other side of the outlet. The couple who camped on the other side of the outlet, simply moved up my virgin lake. No doubt because of a otter problem They had the side kick. I know that because, it was the only other car left when i returned to the trail head. So when run4cache returned to his car. There should have been a red ranger, a side kick, a black jeep, and a tundra, if no one else parked there. Through elimination, that leaves the owner of the tundra as the litter bug. If no one else parked there and hiked up.

[captain jack]

" Killer Otters ate my Raft " Now just think about how much fun it would have been if they chewed on it while you were exploring the glacier. You could have been stuck on the north side with a pile of limp vinyl. I also packed garbage out from that trail. Sure glad they reopened the road.

[Backpacker Joe]

DOH! Oh damn I forgot the black TJ. Sorry.

[Scrooge]

Thanks, Hulk. Your telephoto of the Columbia Glacier puts still a different twist on what I thought I saw.

columbia glacier

In the first pic I saw (Drewcoll's non-teleohoto), the two dark patches looked like bare rock showing through, and I got all excited thinking that the Columbia Glacier was melting away, soon to be nothing but a snowfield. Then Drew posted a semi-telephoto of the glacier (in response to my request) and I decided that both splotches were avalanche debris (which would actually insulate the glacier a little bit. Your pic clearly shows that the splotch in the middle is in fact a plume of avalanche debris, but that the dark area on the right is actually a talus slope, with the snow covered glacier at the bottom and a bank of last winter's snow remaining at the top. ........ An in between sort of signal. Then, after getting your pic, I noticed that Jordan had also made a trip to Blanca, and took this shot of the glacier.

ColumbiaGlacier.09-08.Jordan

That shows that the glacier's terminus (out of view in pics from across the lake) is bare of last winter's snow, but that the rest of the glacier remains snow covered. Probably a positive year for mass balance, although, as peltoms has indicated, the long term trend is towards extinction.

[Flower Sniffer]

Great pictures! The otter is too cute. Sorry he ate your boat. I floated Blanca several years ago. What an awesome place! Too bad about the nasty old litter bugs. ARG! Thanks for picking up their mess. You rock!

[Slugman]

Good job putting out the fire and carting out the trash. Two thumbs way up!