This trip report, or at leas this portion of this trip report, is brought to you from the middle of a meadow field filled with wildflowers, fed my a meandering creek. (Which, I might add, is giving life to the mosquitoes buzzing around me, but no one else.)

It was a very long night – filled with sleep and only two pee breaks. A leisurely breakfast ensued, taking care of various packing and checking on a leaking ThermaRest. But two hours later, we were on the chilly trail, with overcast, puffy clouds occasionally letting the sun filter through.

Bikers, of all Kinds, at the Top of Horse Head Pass

We went up over Horse Head pass, meeting a few motorcyclists at the top. It was definitely a slog to get there, but not a terribly long one. As we chatted with the motorcyclists, two mountain bikers came to join us and took a short break as well, and we watched as they and the motorcyclists took off.

Posing Marmot

And so we headed down towards Boiling Lake, down the other side of the pass, with yet more zigzagging. A few turns later, we had a powwow to figure out what path we were going to be taking towards Angel’s Staircase, either around the lake in a longer, more level path, or a reopened sheep’s trail over another saddle. All along that section of decent towards Boiling Lake there were a bevy of
marmots, some looking for food and checking us out, and others mating.

A Rare Picnic Table

After finding the path to the saddle, we found a fabulous horse camp, complete with extremely wobbly picnic table, and had a leisurely lunch with the sun breaking through just as we finished. (The sun was not to last long.). That particular ascent up the sheep path was definitely a steady climb, mostly right up the hill, but the saddle we were heading towards was visible the whole way.

Gorgeous Meadows Deserve a Admiration Pause

Babbling Brook in a Field of Wildflowers

We found the gorgeous meadows on the other side of the saddle, fields of flowers just before the minor path met back up with the major ones. A babbling brook, which really looks and sounds just like a babbling brook should, comes though much of this meadow. Another bevy of marmots was wandering through this field, some posing, some galloping through the field.

A Break on the Meadow

We had another powwow about where to camp, with many options available to us, and the majority of the group wanting to camp on the meadow overlooking the North Cascades. The water, and the possibility of climbing Martins Peak, seemed to settle this issue. Of course, the inertia of already being on the ground helped. There has been enough inertia at this point that the peak isn’t going to happen, and instead we’re setting up tents, in case of weather. Thus ends the 3:20pm update, frozen fingers causing significant typos.