For September 6th, Michael and I hiked the Summit Lake trail in Hatcher Pass. With no indicated destination or duration, we simply packed our gear for a day hike and took off for the mountains. Leaving my tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad at home was at the very least indication of a short hike.
Our day started late; we left the trail head around 3:30pm. September/October are the months we experience very near equal parts of daylight and darkness. By 9:00pm, the night sky makes outside tasks very difficult this time of year. I knew this when we started our hike, and I made a mental note that we should turn back around 7pm.
The hike up the ridge line was quite spectacular. The blue skies left us earlier in the day around 1:00pm, but the high cloud ceiling made the hike worthwhile despite the lack of my favorite color in the sky. The specialists forecast rain, we prepared ourselves with rain gear, gloves, and warm undergarments just in case.
Easy, huh?
The decent was painful. I took 800mg of Ibuprofen and wrapped a brace around my knee. Despite the pain bleeding through, I knew that without a tent, overnight survival would be rough--even though it would have made for a hell of a better blog entry. Maybe next time.
We hit the parking lot around 9:30pm; the sky was definitely too dark for our activity. Next time, I'll take my tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad. I plan to offset the extra ten pounds (33% additional pack weight) with a new ultra-compact point and shoot camera (more on that later).
I've posted the photos from both my and Michael's cameras to my Picasa Web Albums.
