Date: August 21, 2017
Miles: 2425.4 – 2447.4
“Every now and again take a good look at something not made with hands – a mountain, a star, the turn of a stream. There will come to you a wisdom and patience and solace and, above all, the assurance that you are not alone in the world.” ~ Sidney Lovett
Today was met by all of us with some excitement because we knew we were about to experience the solar eclipse in all its glory from the backcountry. We hiked to a large meadow with a lake, got our snacks out and watched the moon make its way across the sun. Don’t worry mom, I didn’t look directly at it.
We alternately watched its reflection on the surface of the lake, and through two polarized sunglasses. The eclipse itself was a bit underwhelming from our vantage point, as the sun wasn’t blocked enough for the sky to go dark but was just enough to make the air cold, but being sprawled out in the middle of the morning for our eclipse party was a really fun change of routine.
After the big event was over, we decided to make it a short day and hike another 15 miles to Glacier Lake. Along the way we stopped for lunch at what our gps app just called a cascading stream, but was more of a rager than was described.
After lunch we climbed up to Deception Lakes, which were a beautiful pair of lakes I would have loved to have camped next to if only they had been farther along.
We kept climbing to Piper Pass, then descended into Surprise Gap and camped next to Glacier Lake in the shadow of Thunder Mountain, serenaded by a chorus of pikas until we and the pikas called it a night.
