Grand Teton Day6 no.2

As we climbed, the Lake solitude got smaller below. Lake solitude is both beautiful at the lake shore and in the distance. I couldn't help stopping and look back the lake time to time (and I can take a breath as well, hehe).

Lake Solitude

The majority of day hikers go to Lake Solitude and not further, so now it was very quiet and only a little backpackers were on the trail. Very quiet and nice. 

Pretty Valley

Looking back is a pretty Lake solitude(picture above). Looking ahead is an amazing U-shape valley (left picture). This portion is wonderful. On the trail a hiker was descending into the Lake solitude, probably he started hiking very early, and said hello to us. Then he said, "beautiful!" with his hands up. His posing is just right to describe this beauty. Absolutely no argument in front of this stunning scenery. 

Paintbrush Divide

Then finally, finally......FINALLY we arrived at Paintbrush Divide!!! Wonderful feeling with awesome mountains. The other side of paintbrush is like a hole. Surrounded by mountain all the way 360. In the hole there is a blue lake coming from glacier. I would describe this rapturous blue. I know it is unusual usage of adjective, but one of my favorite songs is called rapturous blue. So every time I see amazing blue, I remembered the phrase rapturous blue.

At the divide we took a long break here and ate snack and enjoyed view. After 10-15 minutes I heard hikers coming to the divide from behind. The guy coming close said, "Wooohoooo!"

They turned left and came to the top......and they are the guys we were all close all the day! On the trail you see hikers and greet and often leave by saying "see you at the summit. Usually you never see them at the summit. However, this time we did! The guy said to me, "See you at Paintbrush Divide" at 7 in the morning. Then we saw each other at the summit at 4 p.m. indeed. They were two guys. One is from Washington D.C., the other is from Florida. 

The guy from DC, who seems leading a hike, said to his companion, "We are 2 hours ahead of schedule, so we can rest here about 15-20 minutes."

Wow. So precisely scheduled. I like to hike leisurely and spontaneously, but also I liked his style a lot as a scientist and a Japanese.

Usually hikers are nice. Also we had sense of camaraderie by sharing pain of the day (+/-4000 feet under the hot temperature). I felt good to have such fellow hikers on the way. 

After enjoyed being at the top, it was time to descending to a campsite. There was still 2.5 miles to go. 

Here, the most important point. Descending side of Paintbrush had snow patches. Rangers told us to bring ice axes. However, from the top we didn't see much snow. Well, we would see...

To be continued...