21 July 2015

I am sitting on a low plateau outside our “living room”, our cooking tent. Jason is right: this must be one of the best spots for a cooking tent ever: in the shadow of the mountain, the creek with the clean drinking water is gushing down and meets the glacier creek in front of us. We didn’t cross the glacier creek with the brown water again today because it is at its fullest at this time in the evening, about 8pm.

We have been walking since late morning after packing our tents and backpacks together. At times it felt like a computer game with different levels that we had to complete. First the 1000 ft ascent (still with pretty heavy backpacks), then long descends and side hills, fighting flies, breaking through thick willow pockets, balancing over large stones, crossing creeks. Luckily we avoided the facing bear level. Jason was a large grizzly from the distance and we adjusted our route accordingly.

We saw lots of waterfalls, little canyons, snowbridges, flowerbeds as we came into the valley and all around us the stunning views of the mountains.