Day 71-Ice Mountain

We have found ourselves behind a large clump of hikers--every southbound CT'er or weekend hiker we meet tell us they saw 15 of us the day before.  Most of the time when we've come across a cooler (which isn't that often) it's empty so imagine our surprise when we found a lone soda in a shopping bag at a trailhead.  Portrait and I were only too happy to share it. 

We were walking down Cottonwood Pass road and I was telling Portrait the story of the first moose I'd ever seen (on the way to Baxter State Park in Maine to start my AT hike in '07) and somehow, walking down the road, I happened to notice this moose across this marshy field.  (I'm thinking of changing the blog's name to Castle's Blog of far away Animal Photos).  We watched her munch on moss for awhile while the mosquitoes munched on us. 

I though about going swimming at this lake, and almost went swimming in the next one we came too, but decided that while it was hot enough for a dip, the wind coming off the water would have made swimming unpleasant.  

The climb up to Ice Mountain Pass was a nice one, but snow was waiting for us at the top. 

This is looking south at the trail.

And this is looking north.  With careful steps we navigated the snow field. 

It wasn't anything scary until we had to downclimb off the snow and onto loose rocks.  They were worst than the snow.

Looking south at the snow covering the pass and the trail below us.  That much snow made for slow going. 

The nearly full moon

Once down from the pass we found ourselves on a dirt road that had a couple dozen choice campsites lining it.  We snagged this one under the umbrella of this pine.