Page 9: Spectacle Lake

2 PM – Since I moved the tent, things are a little more comfy. Micki is still in the bag and Mica has my Proton jacket draped over her. It's a balmy 40° in the tent – and that’s after cooking lunch inside!  Most importantly, it seems to have momentarily stopped raining. But that surely won't last for long.

I'm contemplating abandoning the high route to Waptus Lake in favor of a shorter, mostly lower, route over Pollalie Ridge.  We're talking about 12 miles to the lake via the high route, is versus 8 miles via Pollalie.  It would also save about 600 meters of elevation gain.  Spectacle Lake is situated at 1,219 meters so just eyeballing it out my tent, the snow level loks to be at about 1,450 meters.  Hopefully it won’t come down a whole lot more tonight.

If it does, we can go out to via Pete and Cooper Lake to Salmon La Sac (about 12 miles) and then follow La Roux Creek for about another 12 miles.  We could easily knock off that 24 miles in three days. We'd have to walk on roads for about two miles near Salmon La Sac, but I think it's a pretty good emergency plan, if it comes to that.

6:45 PM – well, I have been pondering our situation and still haven't come to any firm decision. I'd sure like to do the high route. I'll bet the views of Bears Breast, Summit Chief, and Chimney Peak would be incredible from up there! But if there would be no view due to the lousy weather, why bother?

Escondido Ridge is a steep sucker, gaining over 1200’ in the 1st mile-and-a-half. The elevation gain on the other side is 2700’, but over a much longer distance.  I guess what I'm leaning towards right now is this: if the weather is halfway decent, it's the high route; if it's rotten, we stay here another day. It is drizzly but not really windy or cold, we go the low route over Pollalie.  See, it's not complicated at all!

It hasn't rained for about an hour and the temperature seems to be going up a little. It's 45° inside the tent now. I got out the altimeter and set it at zero so I can check it tomorrow and see if there's any change in atmospheric pressure. If it goes up, that will be a good indicator to press on. If it stays the same or (heaven forbid!)  goes down, we better stay put.

Micki is feeling much better. She went out of the tent three times today and spent several minutes out with Mica while I was fetching water for dinner. She really had me worried for a while, but now she seems back to her old self. I figure that whenever we get ready to move on, Mica and I can carry all of her stuff, so that ought to help her out.

We need a minimum of six days to finish this hike, and that's cutting out the side trips to Ivanhoe and Tuck & Robin Lakes. We have 8 1/2 days left, so that gives us a little leeway ... but not much. I'm hoping that once we get further east the weather will improve. That would make things a lot more pleasant!

Were currently being visited by birds, ‘camp robbers’ no doubt. I hope they don't shit on my tent!  Hey, you laugh – but it's happened before!

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