This was by far our longest day of the entire trip. There was a lot to try to fit in so we got an early start. We awoke to Mt. Olympus and a perfect sunrise. We were going to have good weather on this day also and that was a must. We started up the steep trail after breakfast and packing up. I hung with my dad for a short period until we were at the base of the slopes of Mt. Carrie.
Having climbed the peak before, Dad left me to go scramble up the peak alone. I dropped my pack in a clump of trees and then started to ascend the steep slopes. I made it over the grassy treeline and on to the rocky ridge. This I followed up until I got to a great basin with the peak's summit rising just above me. I was going to have to traverse over to it. Now the guide books make it sound like not a big deal to get to the top of Mt. Carrie, but I was having some issues. The talus slope did not provide me good footing and there was no ridge line that would be good to walk.
I made it just below the summit and I could tell that if I could make it past this steep crux I would obtain the summit. The fact was, though, that I was out there by myself and it would be easy to make one slip and get myself rather injured. So my nerves got the better of me and I decided to turn around. It was a frustrating choice because I might have been able to push through it. I did not want to ruin the trip or myself in the process, though. So I flew down the slopes as quick as I could to pick up my heavy pack again.
I was once again on the "trail". This was a path of use made from trips through the Bailey's. It traversed the steep slopes and frequently I looked down to see thousands of feet falling away below me. I would traverse until I got to a steep flowing creek where I would have to negotiate some steep obstacles to get back on the mainly flat path. Eventually, I ran into Dad again who was slightly nervous about me getting back from the peak. I took a while trying to find the route. I had to tell him that I chickened out of it. He did not seem too bothered by that.
Then we continued traversing until we made it to Eleven Bull Basin. Finally, I could relax a little bit. Here we had a more open basin without sheer drop offs. I felt like I was taking many steps to make sure I did not stumble and now I could open up my gait a little bit. This did not last long, though, and soon once again we were negotiating the steep slope with amazing views. This place was spectacular. It was wild and pristine. It really was kept so much in its natural state just by how difficult it was to access.
Not soon enough, the steep, open slopes gave way to a tree lined forested area. Our goal for this day was to get down to Cream Lake. I could see a lake below us, but unfortunately it was not Cream Lake. Instead, we followed a use trail until we came to a junction that was cairned. The nice part about out here was that the cairns were few and in the correct places. The problem was that after this we were in the trees. We followed some open meadows that just led to more trees. We were avoiding a big bunch of slide alder that had come down in an avalanche.
Whether this was productive or not, it is hard to say because eventually we found ourselves just fighting the trees anyway. We traversed until we were directly above Cream Lake and then we descended steeply. It was very relieving to finally make it down to the shores of this mosquito infested lake. Immediately the first thing that I did was jump right into the lake for a dip. It had been a hot day and I was dirty and sweaty. This was great relief to jump into the cool waters, but quickly I had to get some long sleeves on to keep the mosquitoes away. We found a campsite slightly removed from the lake where the mosquitoes were not so bad. We would wake up in the morning and start hiking again feeling good about the progress that we had made on this day.
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