Edelman and I parked our tent at Sunrise Camp and spent two days on The Burroughs, because--well, you can't get closer to Heaven than that before you shed your mortal coil.
First day, after setting up camp we headed to Third Burroughs. This was our first time up there, having done Second Burroughs and The Loop a few times, and it takes you up close and personal to Winthrop Glacier. Gorgeous. Neither words nor photographs can describe, though I included one or two here. Interestingly, we caught a glimpse of a steam vent issuing out of the mountain (see pic). Never seen that before. Also, the rim of the volcanic cone was melted out, and I can't remember having noted that before, either. . . It was very warm (!) that day, and it's super exposed up there. Water, electrolytes, hat, sun screen, and pacing yourself important. We're in our mid-sixties, so did all the above. RT was about 8 miles, but that was starting from Sunrise parking lot and returning to Camp.
Speaking of camp, camping takes a lot of energy, between filtering water, batting mosquitoes, and preparing your freeze dried cuisine. (After checking the "eat by" date on our dinner, I figured out that my brother would literally be 100 years old by the time our mac-n-cheese shed its mortal coil).
Day two, we did the Burroughs Loop, which is 11.5 miles RT. The day started out warm and progressed to baking by the time we were crawling up the back side of Second Burroughs from the Glacier Basin trail. Yes, we did the Loop clockwise. We've done it in the other direction, and I think that may be the preferred direction, BUT--it was interesting to see it from a new perspective. Climbing from White River camp to within about a mile of Glacier Basin, then up to Second Burroughs, in at least 80 degrees, was quite the aerobic and thigh muscle workout. Electrolytes definitely made the difference for me. I have a tendency to become nauseated when I'm really pushing myself, which also means I start feeling weak (this has been a lifelong issue for me re: backpacking, especially through-hiking), and electrolytes have proven to actually work in re-energizing me and allowing me to regain my physical equilibrium. Anyway, the nearly 3000-foot, exposed elevation gain from White River camp to Second Burroughs, was a hot one. Edelman and I felt pretty high when we reached the top.
Day 3, we thought we'd try and hike to Berkeley Park to see the wildflowers, so headed in that direction. However, I was feeling kind of woozy again (way too much sun, on top of twp days of strenuous hiking), so we only made it a little past the Wonderland/Fremont Lookout junction before deciding to head back to camp and pack up. Although I was a little disappointed in my physical constitution, I knew that it was good sense to quit while I was ahead--i.e., not push myself till I suffered real heat exhaustion. By the time we hiked out, we'd hiked about 24 miles in three days and seen amazing landscapes. And, Edelman and I got to spend our 36th summer hiking together, sleeping in our Tiny Tim tent (a two-person Big Agnes, designed to house elves, I think).
Flowers: in pretty much bloom. Among them, magenta paintbrush, lavender asters, pearly everlasting--just all sorts.
Bugs: hungry mosquitoes in camp--not too bad while you're hiking/moving. Biting flies on Second Burroughs.
Happy and safe hiking, Everyone :-)
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