The thunder and lightning storm persisted through the night and into the next day. This also meant a juggling of the hikes as many couldn't be done safely because you are on exposed ridges.
First of all we postponed by an hour the departure of the trips in the hope that the weather would clear. It didn't clear at all but the rain and thunder did stop in the afternoon.
I changed my hike to Pass Lake instead of Azure Lake - it is only about 2km but with a climb to Whiteman Pass and then a drop to the Lake.
Leaving camp with the rain gear and heading for Whiteman Pass and Pass Lake.
There is a great array of alpine wildflowers along the trail to the Pass - the trail is slippery from the rain but we seem to be making fairly good time.
After about 25 minutes of hiking we arrive at the Continental Divide at Whiteman Pass - elevation 2175 meters or approx 7200' - we don't see much as it is pretty much socked in.
First look at the meadow as we near Pass Lake.
There are two parts to the Lake - this is the smaller of the two.
Looking at the main part of Pass Lake.
We stop at the outlet stream for our lunch with some trees providing us with some shelter from the rain and wind.
More of the flowers that were near where we stopped for lunch.
There is a small canyon and waterfall at the outlet - this is a brief glimpse of the waterfall - because of the conditions we didn't explore any further down the trail and the canyon.
Around 1:30PM the rain stopped - I lead the group back to camp - despite the weather all but a couple of the 54 in camp actually got some hiking in - two groups went up to Cross Lake - the other short hike that was easy to do in bad weather.
Tuesday evening the first of the trip reports were given and all the new first time hikers were given their Skyline Hikers membership cards.
While the day went fairly well considering the weather conditions I was starting to fell under the weather.
I suffer from some mild depression and anxiety attacks and despite meds occasionally suffer from bouts of fatigue - unfortunately for me I started to have the symptoms near the end of the day - despite lots of encouragement from my fellow hikers I did help with the trip reports but decided not to lead a hike tomorrow as I may stay in camp. My bouts with fatigue usually only lasts about 24 - 36 hours - with all the excitement of the first two days I was not surprised that I had an outbreak - hopefully as things stabilize in camp I will get back to being my usually self.
Next up - a day in camp and a surprise visitor
Cheers.
Dennis
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