July 28th was overcast but not threatening to rain. Today was the last full day of our stay at Lake O'Hara, so our goal was Sleeping Poet's Pool, which we had been unable to visit the year before.
As we made our way around Lake O'Hara to the Lake Oesa trail, Joan and I were thrilled to get some good binocular views of a pair of varied thrushes, a bird not found in Ohio. Its unique ringing song always tells us we're in the Rockies.
We headed for Lake Oesa to pick up the Yukness Ledges trail. On our way, we look down on Lake O'Hara and a canoe (click to enlarge).
When we arrived at Oesa the weather was cold, but still no precipitation.
What's that? Out on the lake there are researchers in an inflatable rubber boat, no doubt sampling the water.
Another fun bird spotting at Oesa, a hermit thrush. These occur in isolated areas in Ohio, including the hemlock ravines at Clear Creek Metro Park.
But we're bound for the Yukness Ledges. Bye-bye, Oesa.
At first the trail drops down a short way from the level of Oesa.
We slowly gained altitude and distance along the Yukness Ledges Alpine Trail. Behind us both Lake Oesa and the lower, smaller Lake Lefroy were in view.
Using full zoom, my camera caught these hikers on their way up to Oesa. They're almost there.
After the Yukness trail drops and turns west in front of Mount Yukness, the view ahead is like this:
The first half of the ledge trail showed clear signs of maintenance work since last year; false trails and dangerous edges were blocked by a row of stones and the alpine trail markers, a blue square with two yellow vertical rectangles, appeared to be freshly painted.
This zoom photo from the ledge trail shows the Oesa trail winding through a boulder field.
The point where the trail passes the center of Lake O'Hara is an irresistible sight: no matter how many photos I have of it, I'm compelled to always take another. Note that the clouds are still low.
This deep gully is the last spot where the winter snow lingers on the Yukness Ledges trail, but after the hot June this year, there is none.
After turning another corner we're headed south, and the Opabin Plateau is below and ahead. Just when you think that the trail to Sleeping Poet's Pool must not exist any longer, it appears, close to the Opabin end of the Yukness Ledges. Here, Joan is making her way up the steep, unofficial and unmaintained trail. Because I'm looking up to take the picture, it's even steeper than it appears.
An expansive ledge well above the Yukness Ledge trail holds the pool. Note our daypacks just right and below the center of the image, offering scale. There's plenty of water this time; in some years there's hardly any.
The lip of this ledge begins as a series of rocky steps before turning into a sheer drop.
The view changes as you walk along the edge. The little knob far below in this image is Opabin Prospect!
During our restful lunch next to the pool a solo climber came down the scree slope from higher on Mt. Hungabee. Afterwards we carefully descended back to the Yukness Ledge trail, where light showers resumed, and thence down to the Opabin Plateau. After tromping along the Opabin Highline trail, I took this photo looking back towards the upper part of the Cascade Lakes.
A gray-crowned rosy finch was busy foraging amidst the running waters, hopping about so frequently it was difficult to grab an in-focus picture. This is the best of the lot.
We also saw a parent/child pair of dippers, and a marmot on a high rock.
Joan and I descended using the West Opabin trail, and shortly after the All Souls Prospect alpine route had split off, we saw a fisher, a secretive member of the weasel family. This was the first sighting for either one of us. Further along we were treated to yet another view of the mountain goats that have been visiting the slopes of Mt. Schäffer this week.
Near the bottom of the trail we came across a porcupine, capping an extremely critter-filled hike.
That evening we had another wonderful dinner at the lodge, and prepared to depart. But tomorrow we would leave on the afternoon bus, giving us most of the day for one last hike at Lake O'Hara.
July 24th started with rain, snow, and hail during breakfast. We left our cabin 45 minutes later than usual, and headed for our preferred messy weather destination, the Opabin Plateau, which we had already visited two days earlier. It's a good place to wander when you don't wish to get too high up or too far away.
This photo shows how the bluffs of the plateau appear from lake level.
We decided to walk around Lake O'Hara clockwise to the East Opabin Trail, the longer way to go. In this image Joan and I are at the head of the northern, smaller lobe of Lake O'Hara.
The east trail is wider, wooded, switchbacked, and less interesting than the west trail, but the footing is better in borderline weather. As it was, the rain/snow mix abated as we climbed.
Joan and I were thrilled to encounter a varied thrush on the trail, a bird we never see in Ohio. So even if the image is fuzzy, I'm including it!
We continued on to Lake Opabin, where we ate lunch. The cold persuaded us not to linger. We began our return on the west side of the plateau, and encountered a hermit thrush being pestered by two chicks. You can't feed those beaks fast enough! We also saw the three baby marmots from two days before, in the same spot, but not a parent.
We made a brief stop at the Opabin Prospect even though the rain was developing again. Even with low clouds the view was something to appreciate.
Joan, on far right in the blue rain jacket, provides scale. There's a cairn dead center. Let's take a closer look.
Closer yet.
Then we descended by the West Opabin Trail and returned to our cabin after an outing of five hours.
July 25th began with a cold, light drizzle. Joan and I didn't shove off until 11:00. We were headed for Linda Lake via the Lower Morning Glory Trail and the Linda Lake Beeline Trail (click on the map to enlarge).
This view looks back to the Elizabeth Parker Hut at the start of the Lower Morning Glory.
We lunched at the extensive rock pile on the southern shore of Linda Lake, where we often see pikas.
We briefly saw a couple of pikas, but today's gloomy weather seemed to be keeping them indoors (in their rock warrens).
The clarity of the water here makes for color shadings you wouldn't find anywhere less transparent. The transition from brown to green is sudden.
Joan and I swung around the west and north sides of Linda Lake and hiked down to a four-way junction. Technically the junction is only three-way, but the closed fourth trail is still visible. At one point I slipped on some moss, but the same moss made a soft landing for my posterior.
At the junction we turned right towards the Lake O'Hara campground. We saw varied- and hermit- thrushes, and heard winter wrens. This trail is much less rocky and root-strewn than the Lower Morning Glory, which we shall remember for the future.
After the campground we took the Cascade Route, which crosses the outflow creek and put us on the east bank of a lake just downstream from Lake O'Hara. It's the small oblong in the above left of this satellite image, almost touching the road.
Here we saw pipits, sandpipers, mergansers, yellow-rumped warblers, a golden-eye duck and six small ducklings. The sightings were exciting through binoculars, but too far for my camera.
After a clean-up in our cabin it was time for dinner. In this photo the gong hasn't rung yet.
Tomorrow the weather should be better.
