- Mt. St. Helens
Pink snow is algae/bacteria
Another shot of the beautiful "watermelon snow" which appear as long pink streaks in the snow. It is a living organism: snow algae. Packwood glacier.
September 7th & 8th, 2008:
This trip consisted of a short backpacking trip (four miles) up to the
intersection of trails: 96 & 86 (from the Snowgrass flats
trailhead) into the Goat Rocks Wilderness. Near the trail
intersection I set up my tent to use as a "base camp" for
two nice day hikes on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.
The first "day hike" from my tent site, was up to Goat Lake and the ribbon water falls of Goat Creek. This is a short easy hike through meadows of wildflowers and whistling marmot. Because of the late snow pack in the Cascade Mountains this year (2008), many of the wildflowers bloomed late and lupine still flourish. The harbinger of fall, the mountain bog gentian are showing up in bloom now.
Though clear skies prevailed, a really strong gusting wind storm rattled my tent late Sunday night.
The second day hike started Monday morning at 7:30 am when I left my tent site with a day pack. I hiked up trail 96 to the Pacific Crest Trail. At the PCT I hiked north and up over the high route of the Pacific Crest Trail, up over Old Snowy Mountain. I hiked north up and down the spine of the ridge until I was just above Elk Pass.
I returned back to my tent in the afternoon, following the low route across the west face of Old Snowy Mountain, that passes just above the Packwood Glacier.
The weather was perfect; the mosquitoes were few; the camp fire soul soothing; and you can't beat the scenery, exercise, and fresh mountain air.
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