Glacier Pk – “Ultralighting Friends and Fam”

[Elena Lee]

Our 5 day trip to Glacier Peak Wilderness starts and lake Chelan with the Lady of the Lake taking us to Stehekin. We leave 4am with about two hours of sleep, as I neurotically repacked and rationed all the food and gear for my friends. this is their first long distance backpacking trip!
The favorite clouds in the world are the ones that roll over hills and dissipate

Our party of four at the PCT trailhead heading southbound towards Image Lake and Glacier Peak. Lets go party five days in the woods!

Had to leave directions for Jody behind

Oh marmot, our faithful whistler

His Majesty Glacier Peak, peaking over into our campsite

One day was spent at the Miners Ridge. Our best ridge walking up to date! Rolling meadows, beautiful clouds unveiling settings from my dreams…A little posing makes the scenery look even better :)

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Jody chillin at the image lake

Image Lake from the top of our wonderings

Image lake producing images

Here is supposed to be a picture of our swimming in the lake, but i dont' think this website allows nudity, so we'll omit. Moving on…
We haven't seen a single soul, except for volunteer Fred, who hangs out at the fire lookout for about… 2 months in the summer. one thing for sure, he's got the coolest real estate in the whole world. He lets us check it out:

He also feeds us darn good chilly. Thank you Fred! (wait, i wasn't supposed to tell anyone).

We love huckleberries, and bears love them too

On our fourth day, Jody and I decide to "really quickly" climb the Cloudy Peak. Well, I decide and Jody signs up. Our guys proceed to the Lyman lake to get us set up with tents and get the cookin started. Nice guys!

The weather is changing as we go. That little red dot is Jody. She Goes Lite.

I finally make it to the top. Cloudy peak? i should have known. I think i'm in the cloud, i better go down. wait, how did i make it to the top?? which way??

precipitation chance: 100%

we are stuck on the top, it's raining and it's white outside. there are some good rock shelters abound.

the clouds thin out for a second, we are rolling down thru the meadows. deer likes to eat the fuzzy stuff

We (I) decide to cut thru the woods directly to the lake. It's NOT known to me yet.. that these woods turn into a huge cliff… this would have been great Women vs. Wild footage…

nice woods-should be a pleasant walk. Not!

it was raining on our last night non-stop, but thank Henry for a tarptent. we slept on and off dreaded by the thought of waking up at 4:30 am next morning in the cold spitting rain to start our hike out to Holden. No fast boat for us…

Happy Children in Holden. Happy place!

Our "slow boat" is coming! we had a chance to jump of the dock for our last totally ultralight swim : )

[Jim Yancey]

Man! What memories your post has brought flooding back! I took the Lady up Lake Chelan to Stehekin about 25 years ago or so and BP'd the north Cascades (not ultralight, unfortunately.) I've wanted to go back ever since, but just haven't made it yet. Absolutely gorgeous country! Thank you, Elena, for a great slideshow and an inspiration.

[Jay Wilkerson]

Way cool pictures and trip report…Skinny Dippin is aloud on this website-Right??? Just go for it!

[Tony Wong]

Elena,

Thanks for taking the time to post up your photos and telling us the story of what happened.

Beautiful place and good company to share it with!

What else can you ask for.

Looks like it got pretty cold….hopefully, you were able to have some campfires to warm you up at night.

Thanks for making my day as I sit in my cube at work. :)

-Tony

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