Lewis Peak tonight. 11 miles, 3150 vert. 2:00 hours. Tough and I'm tired. I took my camera tonight and would have some great shots but the battery was dead. doh! Unbelievably cool sunset, dropped below the clouds just as it went behind the horizon, turned everything red and orange, nothing like summer alpenglow, an awesome view in every direction and a camera in hand with a dead battery. Nice!
A little side story:
Parking lot had one car in it, trail was empty, thought I was all alone out there until I turned the last corner headed to the peak, and there, on the peak sat a very tired, out of shape and inexperienced looking father and 3 boys, guessing ages 12, 7, and 5. We talked for a bit, the older boy asked how long it took me, I said an hour, he said they started at 3:30. Well, it was currently a little after 8:30 (that's 5 hours to go 5.5 miles) and getting dark fast. I asked if they were headed all the way down or spending the night? They said all the way down. Ever been up here before? nope. Geeze, maybe I was wrong, but they sure didn't look like they were prepared, or had planned for what would end up being close to a 10 hour day in the mountains by the time they got back to the car, in the dark, with thunderstorms all around the valley. The trail is not straight forward in the dark either, lots of side trails and unmarked forks. I asked if they had lights? yes, and they showed my 3 small flashlights like you would by at a dollar store. I asked about water, they said they had a little but thought it was enough. I had nothing to offer them, one light, 2 gulps of water and I was out of gel. I wished them luck, told them to be safe and headed down. I worried about them all the way down and on the way home I saw a cop parked on the side of the road, I pulled over and explained the situation, that they were fine when I saw them, but somebody might start to worry (there is no cell service up there so if they were way over due they couldn't let anyone know) and call it in, and I wanted to let him know where they were and that they were o.k. Right now its 11:00 and I'm sure they are still on the mountain, hope all is well. | 