Although we heard thunder and saw a lot of gray clouds, we had to start because it was already 3 p.m. It was the latest time I’d ever started hiking. Once I hit the trail, I felt happy finally being in the wilderness. I think that mountains under a blue sky are definitely beautiful, but viewing mountains in the clouds is also touching. As we climbed, the view became more magnificent. After a mile, we started hiking on an obscure trail. Surprising? This was the off-trail adventure. Before entering the off-trail portion, I informed Mr.N that I would need to give a presentation at 9:30 a.m. on the next day of our trip. Off-trail is always harder than on-trail, but it was not the hardest (the toughest one is still Agassiz basin). We saw several people camping near the creek and found out that they were going to climb Matterhorn peak. We wanted to climb the first pass as we had planned, but we couldn't because of the late start. We set a camp near the creek and ate dinner. I always like to see the mountains reflecting in the weak orange evening sunlight. It is nostalgic.
Early morning on the second day while we were eating breakfast, a backpacker was coming down from the mountain. It was the hill we were heading to, so Mr.N approached him to ask the trail condition. His name was Arun. Arun was supposed to meet his friend by the lake near the mountain and climb the Matterhorn peak together. However, Arun's friend Terry didn't show up, so Arun couldn't climb the peak. Terry was going to bring the climbing gear. The meeting point sounded a little weird. We wondered why they had planned to meet at a lake, and not a parking lot. Arun thought that he was the only guy from India in the wilderness area, but when he found out that we had one Indian guy Mr.S2, he got interested. He lives in the Bay Area like us, but we met in the remote wilderness. There are always interesting meetings in the wilderness.
No comments:
Post a Comment