The slopes above Eight Mile lake were a blaze of color... Indian paintbrush and lupines in both purple and white
... wild rose and white ceanothus (Ceanothus americanus)
Fields of Shooting stars (Dodecatheon)
There were no fields of them, but we were delighted to find white shooting stars as well.
There were several stream water sources near both Caroline Lakes
Trail is maintained up until Big Caroline Lake, but not beyond.
rodman and larman on the way to Windy Pass
ragman and madman were leading the way
The mood for the better part of the day
But there was still color close at hand
Moss campion, Silene acaulis
And there were still signs of winter
larman and rodman navigate around one of the many unusual rock formations
Enough visibility to pick our way along rocky ridge, but not much more.
madman contemplates our next move
ragman, larman and rodman on the rocky ridge.
Madman was the first to summit
I was next. The survey marker on the way to the summit
The group below viewed from the summit of Cashmere
ragman climbs to the summit
15 minutes later as we relaxed on the boulders below the summit, the fog finally began to lift.
Probably because of the strong wind that was blowing
ragman heads down the gully
rodman climbing down the gully
madman has reached a snow patch high above the valley we will descend into
larman stepping carefully on a gully ledge
larman and rodman coming down the gully. A lot of these boulders were loose and there was more scree and small rock than the pic shows.
The fog began to lift, giving just enough low clarity to get a glimpse of Colchuck Lake to the south
Break at the base of the the snow and rock gullies.
Just the spot for our first real view of the Enchantment Peaks.
The view opened up nicely as we neared the valley floor
rodman takes a look back, but Cashmere's peak is lost in the fog again.
The skies cleared nicely to the south and east however.
Cloud and peaks; blue sky above and below
A stream meanders through the valley
ragman, rodman and madman about to descend to Little Caroline Lake
Big Caroline Lake
The theme song curse has been lifted and it was sunshine and blue skies for the rest of the week.
Making the balsamroot sparkle
Descending to Little Eight Mile Lake
The Trout Creek trail is the one to the Caroline Lakes, Windy Pass and Cashmere Mtn.
plus views on the descent, with a wide variety of terrain during both, meant another great hike with 'the mans' mad, lar, rod and rag. A good solid day of hiking with some excellent scrambling, but until my quads acted up on me at Saturday's hike up Big Jim (ouch!), I had trouble believing we did 16.5 miles and 6107 feet elevation gain. It just never felt like that much that day.
Some pics to fill in the blanks:
Adventurous conditions. 
