Long Climb with Heavy Packs Over Glenn Pass to Vidette Meadows

Finn Dome Reflecting Off Rae Lake

Up early to catch Blake and get the spare fuel canister, meanwhile Sarah boils water for us for morning coffee. Blake shows up early too, guess he's keen to back to civilization after a few days in the mountains, the fuel canister is about 3/4 full, should be enough to get us through to the end.

It's gonna be a long day, 9 miles and 3500' up Glenn Pass, nice to get an early start, we leave about 8:30 am, Sarah as usual lingers around the campsite.

One of the highlights of the day will be the Rae Lakes complex, not too far from the pass, we hear along the bush telegraph how beautiful they are and they don't disappoint, there are some Asian fisherman trying their luck at the first one and we see a big rock formation towering over the lake, the fishermen tell us it's Fin Dome.

Beginning to chafe a bit, undies have got too much salt in them so off they come and use Gold Bond medicated to try and keep it down, my experience in the 100 mile wilderness on the AT tells me it's best to take care of it ASAP.

By the Outflow of Rae Lake

We make good progress and have lunch by one of the lakes in a tiny cove outa the wind, I wash my undies to try and get the salt out while Elena takes a dip the chilly water, the water is not great for dissolving all the salt.

It's still 2.3 miles and 1500' up to the pass, not great to have to do it after lunch, we make good time anyway and do it in one and half hours, it's windy and chilly on a very narrow spine on the pass, there are a couple of Aussies there doing a section of the JMT and they take some pix for us.

It's switchbacks down off the pass, the trail flattens for a bit then steep down again for 1500' into Vidette Meadow, then a sharp left turn at the bottom spills us out onto the meadow, lotsa camp sites near Bubbs Creek and there's a bear box, that's a good thing 'cause we have too much food to store in our canisters, don't wanna leave it out.

Narrow Spines on the Way Up Glenn Pass

We're not super close to the water, gotta follow a path down beside another campsite. We've gone up outa the fire zone and then back down into it so it may be our last campfire, from now on we'll be camping about 10,000'.

Our campsite backs onto the end of the camping area, it looks like there's a bunch of downed trees there so go up to look for firewood.

At first it seems a bit scarce but circle around closer to the campsite and find a good supply, we use the fire to heat our water for Jamaican Chicken and notice something has eaten a hole in one of the food bags, critters are always more a problem than bears.

On Glenn Pass