Spain was great. Hot. Culturally significant. Exotic. But not very mountainy. Not like home. And since I couldn't sleep I went for a walk.
On Friday (twas a holiday) Tink and I ran up to the Pass in the early morning. There was a trail I'd done... oh... 20 years ago with Clara on my back, Tokul on leash, and my father-in-law. All those years ago I had planned a loop. We could have taken the more moderate route up (counter-clockwise) and come down the steeps. But we didn't. Did I intentionally choose to climb steeper with a long, mellow descent? Beats me. That was 20 years ago. I do know that for the last 20 years my father-in-law has mentioned that route choice more than a handful of times.
So I figured I'd pay some penance and do the loop the steep way. It was steep, but not too steep, eh? The trail was nice to the lakes. Then it got... brushy.
Tink and I pushed ahead and eventually got free of the brush. When we joined the PCT, we followed an untrailed ridge above Cottonwood Lake for a bit before heading down for the rest of the loop. It was a good welcome-home hike.
The next day Clara joined me and Tinkham for a short walk and pika hunting adventure. And when I write, "hunting," I mean with a camera, not a gun. We found our way to a beautiful little lake, surprised a young bear, and found the pika we were looking for. (Is it weird that I mention we saw a bear so nonchalantly? Probably. But it's not surprising that the bear was there.)
Sunday Mr. HOS and I took Tinkham up Alta Mountain. This is one of the area's best hikes. You pass multiple lakes and tarns, could still find snow in July, and get views that are unsurpassed both to the north and the south. The only downside is the bugs. The mosquitoes were relentless. We ran into someone I knew and talked for a few minutes. HOS counted 24 mosquitoes on my shoulders.
This time, we tried a new way to climb from the tarns to the summit ridge. We'd seen a ramp on previous trips that looked better than the loose rocks. Did it go? It went! It was an excellent approach to gaining the ridge. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes thought so, too, so we were chased to and from the summit.
