Day 2
8/17/17
17.5 miles
(25 miles total)

The morning started with Bubs discovering her food bag had been gnawed into by a critter and a significant portion of her breakfast cookies eaten away. It was very sad. My food, stored in a Loksak (supposedly odor proof plastic bag) inside an Ursack (supposedly bear proof bag) was untouched.

Finishing up the climb to Jackass Pass, we had a lovely view of the Cirque of the Towers.

 

We made our way down to Lonesome Lake, frequently being asked what we were climbing today by folks who spotted Bubs’ helmet dangling off her pack. We then had to explain were just hiking, but going to be scrambling off trail.
But not off trail just yet.

Leaving the Cirque, we had the option of taking New York Pass or Texas Pass. New York is more direct but steeper and trail-less. Texas is the pass we both took while hiking the CDT. Admittedly, I was a bit disappointed when Bubs voiced her strong preference for TX Pass. I wanted to try the new unknown thing. In the end, TX Pass was nice. NY can wait.

We saw 40+ people (and two llamas!) this morning on trail. Time to get off trail!

After lunch, we left trail from Skull Lake and I finally felt like we actually started our High Route. We picked up bits of game trail through the trees, then had varying terrain of wide open meadows, granite slabs, grassy ramps, lots of talus and some little patches of snow up to Raid Peak Pass. The wildflowers are also still going strong and there were spontaneous bursts of frolicking.

We scrambled talus down the other side to Bonneville lake where we made camp.

All in all a lovely day!