Looking Toward Cook Inlet from Flattop
Today I went back to Flattop for my second trip in four days. Today I wasn't on a time restriction. I just had to be sure to be down before dark!
I was hoping for clearer skies today, and this morning looked promising. But by the time I got to the trailhead there was a lot of haze in addition to some very high thin clouds. The clouds were fine since they add interest to the skyscape, but the haze was coming from a large fire down around Homer and I found myself coughing badly by the time I'd reached the summit.
Still, I found an alternate path that allowed me to bypass the first set of stairs and I made the trip to the summit in an hour and 37 minutes compared to the hour and 8 minutes it took to get to the second saddle last Sunday.
Along the way I got to see some blooms of Spring.
Wooly Lousewort
There was still quite a bit of snow along the ascent from the second saddle to the summit. And it a few places it was a bit treacherous. I was very glad to have my ice axe with me!
Wildflower Kaleidoscope
On the way up I saw a young hiker (male of course), glissade down the very steep slope just to the south of the trail. On Sunday I'd thought that might make a fun trip, but then realized that the snow is melting quickly and in many places is only just barely covers the rocks. To hit a rock glissading down that slope could easily be disastrous. And avalanches on that chute have killed several people over the years. But today I watched a fellow make it safely down to the saddle despite these danges. However, his faithful dog had more sense than he had and only made it some 20 feet down from the summit before deciding that going any further made no sense to him at all. No amount of cajoling from his owner could convince him to proceed.
Eventually the dog, showing great intelligence, worked his way back up to bare rock and across to the trail while his owner was slogging back up the trail to rescue his dog. Hopefully his owner learned a lesson too!
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