Queens River Loop August 2019 - Day 2

Ambrose insisted that we get up early on this trip. I held him to it this morning, which dawned with only some clouds.

Scott Creek was a bit of a challenge to cross.

The clouds began to descend.

Ambrose wanted to stop and bivy after we crossed this creek. I went through without taking my shoes off and got all wet.

The clouds didn't care about how wet my feet were.

Ambrose ended up getting his feet wet in this creek, too. As usual.

But soon after the crossing, I spotted this campsite. And we stopped here for a couple hours, pitching the tent and getting everything out. But my feet never warmed up and we moved on - and it never even rained.

The sun started to come out, and I began to thaw out a bit.

But there was another crossing to wet my feet again. 

And then plenty of downed trees to climb over, crawl under or bypass.

We made it to the Neinmeyer junction, but later than I'd hoped.

Still some wildflowers blooming on the trail.

No deer in the tarn this time.

I hiked on by the junction for Scenic Lake ahead of Ambrose so he wouldn't be tempted to stop there for the night.

But I wanted to get up there.

I tried to avoid stepping in the water to keep my feet dry. The day was still pretty cool even with the sun shining.

But we were going to get up there. Somehow, I was going to get us up there.

Even if Ambrose would rather have sat down and taken a nap.

He wanted to camp at the base of the section of the trail that we call the ramp. But I couldn't find a suitable spot to pitch the tent. So he sat and ate while I scouted. And then he recovered enough to go on - but only to the top of  the ramp. 

I went ahead to the top of the ramp to find us a campsite for the night.

It really doesn't take that long. It's steep, but short. 

And the trail has had some improvement since I last saw it. This bridge over the stream was totally new.

And what used to be a decent flow of water was now a trickle.

We camped near the Browns Lake junction. And Ambrose was beat. I wasn't feeling so great myself, but I got to pitch the tent and fetch water - which I did at the Little Queens rather than the trickling stream. We gave some advice to passing hikers headed to Browns Lake after dinner. And then we slept, with a plan to head to Johnson Lake in the morning.