Tuesday, December 13, 2011

White Pine Hike

(Blog catchup post: #1)

Near the end of July, I went hiking with my uncle Brent and cousins Chad, Allie, and Ryan. As late as it was in the season, there was still tons of snow near the top of the mountain.



This is a particularly nice sign. We chose the White Pine Trail. Someday, though, I'll do the Red Pine Trail. Then I'll be a real man.


I wasn't in this picture, sadly. In fact, we had a beautiful group picture that I took with a timer, but the camera had focused on the background so we were all blurry. I could have chosen to include that in the pictures, but it didn't look good and I would only have done so to appease my narcissism. ;)


Ryan and Chad bust gang signs in the wilderness. Not sure why, but I like it. :)


A beautiful mountain twig nestled warmly between a mountain creek and the snowpack that should have been melted weeks ago.


This is a forest. Isn't it beautiful?


Nearly to the top! The lake is just over that lip of trees you see in the background.


Most of the last 30 minutes of hiking was up a snow field. It was a butt going up, but SO fun going down!


This is White Pine Lake. You should click here to see the full panoramic size. It's much more breathtaking.


Another shot of the lake. I'd had visions of jumping in on the way up, but when I saw all that snow I decided against it.


We got down the snowfields by sledding down on our backpacks! It was an absolute (albeit cold) blast! Chad is in the foreground, with Ryan coming up behind him and Brent in dead last.


I found these plants to be just stunning! It's the texture, I think...

-Barry

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