Queens River Eclipse Trip 2017 Day 2

Good morning, trail.

Ambrose heading up the first little hill of the morning.

Deadfall was the theme of the day.

We got to hike in the shade for quite some time this morning.

There's still snow out here - not that it has been snowing recently, but this snow has survived all summer, and will likely not melt before winter comes back.

Looks like an avalanche came through here and tore down a swath of trees.

I saw many trees bowed down from the weight of the snows.

We took a break at this campsite about a mile from Nanny Creek where another pair had spent the night.

Tilting trees.

Did I mention there was deadfall?

I tried to be extra careful when we walked on rocky trail - "donkey rollers" as Ambrose said.

It was really strange to have Ambrose be in front of me all the time.

We got caught by the sun.

Oh look, a fallen tree.

And another one.

Ha, no fallen trees blocking trail in the meadow!

But this one made us divert up and over, which I didn't like because going down was steep and on loose dirt that made me nervous to step and trust my ankle would hold.

We passed through several sections like this, small trees making us step up and over in quick succession.

I'm not sure this section of trail had trees that didn't experience avalanches.

These poor trees had their tops snapped off. 

Yup. More.

At least the river was running low enough that we could rock hop across rather than take our boots off. 

But we didn't get away from the fallen trees.

I could go under that one easily - Ambrose had a bit more trouble.

Just another couple hundred feet up and we'd be at camp.

After another crossing where we maybe could have rock hopped, but didn't, we were nearly there.

And, here we are, at what we call "Horse Camp" for the old droppings - yet another fallen tree. But there was still room for our tent.