Summerland - Panhandle Gap — Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019

Do we need another trail report on Panhandle in August? Sure, why not. I don't remember ever getting to Panhandle on a snow-free trail, but today it was dry except for a forgettable patch, and the final ascent was easy—but getting there requires patience and decent knees on the rocky trail (a short 2 miles from Summerland that feels longer). The effort is worth it to leave the easy Summerland meadows for the wild tundra. As amazing as it is to find Rainier and Little Tahoma gloriously in your face in Summerland, it's fabulously disorienting to have these giants recede to minor characters in the vast moonscape as you ascend to Panhandle. (Vastness aside, the crowning delight for me was a flock of gray-crowned rosy finches in the final algae-pink snow patch below the gap.)

As others recently reported,the wildflower succession has moved on from the summer riot to gentian (shegoat: "best for last"), which is just beginning, including very fresh blooms just before the bridge across Frying Pan Creek. At Summerland, pink monkeyflower rules along streams and rivulets as far as the eye can see. Below, in the meadows before the final switchbacks, false hellebore (Veratrum viride) is turning brown, but it has yet to give off its exquisite death scent, its olfactory signature in late fall.