Glacier Basin — Friday, Sep. 15, 2023

4th time to G Basin but never explored beyond Mystery Ridge Wooded areas. Vine Maples turning fall colors. Had the whole upper basin to myself for 2 nites. Found the ice caves very interesting with half the ice covered by huge rock slides. Does that qualify for a "rock glacier"? Drank at least a gallon of untreated water so my stomach was glowing green during the night. It was so hot I had to find an immersion pool to soak in from the heat. Sept hiking is the best! Spent plenty time looking up at brite white rocks waiting for them to move but they never do. Just as I was packed to leave one of them did. Amazing how high up Mt Goats forage. For intertainment on Sat I climbed up to the notch as you would to climb East Wil. Spire. I fully expected to turn around but kept inching along. Took a chance climbing solid rock around the giant chock stone and then could scramble to the top of the gap. From there I explored a lot since I was dreading down climbing the gully I came up. Was able to get down to same level as Comet Mine and got pics of the mine cart rails coming out of the hillside. Found a water pipe that must have spanned the gully at one time. "all apochryphal stories are true" - Fred Becky. Pretty sure this was my 7th fail of attempting to set foot on the Comet Mine ledge. Ran into a few folks that had camped lower in the basin. One could spend a week here and barely scratch the surface of artifacts from 1890's! [ Climbing up to E Wil. Gap between spires is class 4 probably but with 5.7 danger of dislodging any stone which could unleash an avalanche of rock behind it! NOT recommended at all! ]