Snow in August

Okanagan · August 15, 2011, 12:04:54 AM

A week ago weekend my son and grandson hiked to timberline with me for two nights camping. Been too busy to post since, on the road a lot.

In the first pic below, they are filtering water at the 1.5 mile point, where we start serious climbing and the last place to get water for a loooong ways.

Lots of wild flowers in the first sub-alpine meadows. I counted 16 kinds of flowers in one meadow.

From the higher meadows we could see the road where we started, about 4000 feet below this photo. We parked on the road, hiked to the bottom of the canyon and then up the other side to timberline.

Looking for critters 7.5miles and over 5k vertical feet above our vehicle.

Grab shot of a snow patch below. In a narrow swath beside the snow is winter, spring and summer. At the edge of the snow new shoots spring up through last year's dead brown vegetation. About two feet farther out spring growth really starts and quickly shows up as taller vigorous summer plant growth. This time of year the old snow is granulated, like fine snow cone ice in your water bottle, nice in August.

FinsnFur · August 15, 2011, 06:05:55 AM

That sure is some beautiful country

It'd be interesting to know and see how it was formed.

HaMeR · August 15, 2011, 07:37:08 AM

That hike darn near tuckered me out!! Beautiful country up there. Thanks for taking us along with you again!!

KySongDog · August 15, 2011, 01:45:32 PM

That is some awesome country. Did you see any critters?

Okanagan · August 15, 2011, 02:19:16 PM

Quote from: FinsnFur on August 15, 2011, 06:05:55 AM
That sure is some beautiful country
It'd be interesting to know and see how it was formed.

Most of that region is volcanic, but this is some other kind of geology. It has lots of huge blocks of granite all cracked. A third of the way down I found a cave entrance one hot August day severalyears ago, (waaay off of any trail) that was spewing COLD air at a forceful volume. I phoned a U. Washington geology prof about it who told me there are no records of caves in that area, and that it probably was a crack connected through the upper part of the peak that runs air through ice filled sections underground. Too small a cave entrance for a person to get into.

Semp: Didn't see any big game at all. We saw sign of a black bear down low on the mountain, but none of the berries were ripe up top. Looked for goats and deer but didn't see any. On a good berry year, by mid-Sept. those high huckleberry slopes will have bears scattered through them easy to spot. This trip, a couple of grouse were about it.

FinsnFur · August 15, 2011, 04:13:29 PM

Very interesting. You know you wanted to go in that cave.

Hawks Feather · August 15, 2011, 05:49:33 PM

I really like the images and summer has to be the best time to see snow. I was thinking there might be some (falling) snow in the images.

It is WAY too soon for that.

Jerry

FOsteology · August 15, 2011, 06:31:36 PM

Beautiful alpine meadows!

possumal · August 15, 2011, 09:24:52 PM

That's spending quality time x 2. Spending time with your son and grandson in that beautiful country is a true blessing. I am happy for you and those close to you.

John_NY · August 15, 2011, 10:00:42 PM

Picture number 3 is awesome. Now if somebody would fly me up there in a helicopter and drop me off with a lawn chair

I could sit there all day. What a view.

John

Okanagan · August 16, 2011, 09:57:20 AM

Picture below is my older son with one of his boys this past Sat., a week after the first pics in this post were taken. We have two boys and I hiked and camped with the younger one in the original post of this thread. Wish I could have gone along with the older son and grandsons on their Sat. ramble but I can't keep up with them in that kind of terrain any more.

Okanagan · August 16, 2011, 01:17:39 PM

Quote from: FinsnFur on August 15, 2011, 04:13:29 PM
Very interesting. You know you wanted to go in that cave.

Oh yes.

The entrance went straight down, with ice cold air blowing hard up out of it, and the entrance was a funnel depression choked with rocks. I dropped a pebble in, not sure how far it fell. I have thought about going back and moving those cantelope to watermelon sized rocks to see how big it is inside and if I could get into it. There were several such entrances, some basketball size but blowing air, and one big one totally blocked but it sure looked like a cave entrance. That was before I bought a GPS and it would be hard to find again on the size of that mountainside. Life is too short... and I suspect that's partly the reason for heaven!

KySongDog · August 16, 2011, 01:33:22 PM

That last pic shows a pretty steep slope. I'm sure I could get down it. But I may have to stay there too.

Okanagan · August 16, 2011, 06:36:57 PM

Yep, goat country steep. Knowing the two in the pic, I'll bet they cut right to the upper end of the snow slope and slid down, though it depends on how safe the run out is. The Dad in the pic has an ice axe strapped to his daypack, and can self arrest, but he'd be careful about letting the boys slide down a slope of hard fast snow that is hard to stop on if the bottom was dangerous. Depending on temps and time of day, those snow fields can be hard ice or mushy snow on the top few inches of surface. Yep, I could get down it, though slowly and carefully with my depth perception problems since eye surgery. But getting up it would be baaaaad!

Okanagan · August 19, 2011, 11:03:47 AM

Now that I know how to obscure faces on photobucket, here is one more photo I wanted to post from our hike a couple of weeks ago. My younger son and his son are filtering water from a trickle of snow melt creek. It is the same creek as the one in the first pic on this thread, about 4500 feet higher on the mountain, near the source.

We'd have to make a flat spot for your lawn chair, John, even if we got a helicopter to fly you up!

This morning, I can't believe how blessed and fortunate I am to be able to do and see such places, especially with a son and grandson.

shaddragger · August 20, 2011, 09:38:22 PM

Awesome pics Okanagan!!

nastygunz · August 21, 2011, 07:42:50 AM

Thems post card photos, awesome !

Okanagan · August 22, 2011, 07:31:42 AM

Thank you all. It adds to the enjoyment of such a hike to share some of the pics.

I enjoy seeing the sights and kind of places others here traipse around in, especially the deserts and eastern hardwoods. Wish it was easier to trade each other and swap a day in each other's locations now and then.

possumal · August 23, 2011, 07:04:36 AM

Okanagan, I have said that many times. I hate to admit it, but when my buddies and I were growing up, doing all the sleigh riding things, we would have been crazy enough to try to ride our Western Flyers down hills like that. It wouldn't have mattered that we would only have got one or two rides a day, or would have been broken up like a piece of glass when he hit something at the bottom doing about 80 mph.

Mighty fine pictures to share with us. Thanks.

Hidehunter · August 23, 2011, 07:33:53 AM

Absolutely Love the pics. So Beautiful!