Heading up towards Excelsior Pass

Trailblazers on Excelsior Pass attempt (I took the picture)

The Senior Trailblazers knew that there was little possibility that we would actually get to the top of Excelsior Pass today, since it's only mid-June and snow would most likely block our path. Last year at about the same time (June 21), we made it a little bit farther, which I wrote about here.  We had a larger group today, with Rita's two visitors from last week included, and nobody was inspired to continue a long distance in the snow.

The trail is steep the whole way

They got to see last week what our hiking is like at sea level with sunshine, and then today, the opposite. Our trailhead today in the High Country started at a higher elevation than we climbed anywhere last week. At almost 2,000 feet of elevation, with clouds, our trailhead today was also much cooler with a threat of rain, but we were all prepared for the weather.

Al and mossy rock

At the beginning of the day, we were hopeful that the skies might clear and give us sunshine. This picture of Al shows the best it got all day in the mountains. We almost cast shadows. It was pretty perfect temperatures for us, as we moved steadily upwards. And then, at 4,000 feet of elevation, we encountered the first snow on the trail.

The first of many patches of snow

We were able to navigate our way through another 400 feet of elevation, with the snow going from patches like this until it completely obscured the trail. It's almost exactly a repeat of last year's trip, except that we stopped earlier today for lunch.

LInda and Ward on their blow-up seats

There didn't seem to be much reason to trudge higher through the snow, since it would be another 800 feet or so with no sign of the trail, just lots of snow, and no view as it was cloudy. Lunch was not a long affair, since it wasn't warm and there was no basking in the sun like last week.

Sharon, Sandra and Rita in the SNOW

I had to get a last picture of these three ladies who are old friends. Sharon and Sandra leave in the morning to return home to Virginia. I'm so glad I got a chance to know them, to see how gamely they tackled the elements today, and to be able to capture just a smidgen of their enthusiasm.

Al in the forest

After we finished lunch and started back down, we got some rain showers. Not terrible, but you can see that Al now has his raincoat on and plastic pack cover, giving a splash of color in the middle of the greenery. Although it was nothing like last week, it was still beautiful. We covered more than six miles (I was going to say almost seven but that's a stretch), but we went up and down more than 2,600 feet of elevation in that short distance. My knees know all about it.

And just a short aside: I want to send all my readers a very humble THANK YOU for the comments you left for me after my last post. I am no longer feeling like I might have taken a wrong turn; I know for sure that this is the right path for me. You have no idea how moved I am, and although I might try out a tweak or two, I'm not going to change much. I'm sticking around!
:-)