July 14th Fire Creek Pass to Beyond Baekos Creek

Woke up early with the sun rising on a crystal clear day. I'm sitting on a rock, eating my raspberry granola, looking at the mountains that surround me and I'm thinking of the song "I'm on top of the world looking down on creation ...". Thrilling. Exhilarating. Once the reality of the day set in, however, it was a different story entirely. Most of the morning was tough and slow going. With the trail buried by snow, route finding was difficult at best. The highlight though was my first view of Glacier Peak, for which this area is named. At one point along the trail I swear I could hear the crunching and groaning of a shifting glacier on one of the mountain's flanks. When we finally reached Kennedy Ridge, with the descent came better trail and faster times. We crossed many creeks (Glacier, Kennedy, Stitcom, White, Cherist, Baekos), some on bridges and a few on logs. At one of our rest stops John talked about bailing. A failing pack and shaky nerves were casting doubts on his ability/desire to complete the section. The problem was, in the middle of the wilderness, where do you bail to, especially when the maps you have are for your route and not a bail out spot. He eventually worked through it and decided to push on through what at this point was relatively flat terrain. We found a campsite just below snow level that sets us up well for our assault on Red Pass tomorrow morning.

Fire Creek Pass---Where We're Going

Fire Creek Pass---Where We've Come From

Glacier Peak

12 Miles