Another (quiet) day in Paradise 7/19/2014

[aircooled]

On an amazingly clear and beautiful day, I'd expected Paradise to be crowded with overnighters and crawling with day trippers, but we saw hardly a soul on Saturday. Maybe it's because our slacker schedule had us leaving the Timberline Lodge parking lot at ...um ... noon. But that still doesn't explain seeing only two tents, although it's possible more arrived after we left. Water was high and crossing Zig Zag was possible but tricky. I did it by standing on rocks that were a half inch under the flow. Maybe that kept day trippers away?

Good views of fires to the south. See the huge smoke plume to the east of Jeff?


Some new signage from USFS.




Not many wildflowers. We did see some lupine and paintbrush, and the balsamroot will be flowering soon I think.


A nice stand of heather


We looped back via the PCT






Water was running high everywhere, even on little crossings.


Yarrow - a valuable medicinal herb known to some herbalists as the "master of the blood."


More fun stream crossings.




Zig Zag Canyon




What are those tracks in the snow?



I saw a barefoot hiker just ahead of me. She left this track.


Hikers negotiate another high stream


Anybody know this bird species?


On our return the fires were still burning away.

[joerunner]

Great report aircooled. Good pictures. I was up there circling the mountain on the same day and I have to say that the Zig Zag was the least treacherous of the notable water crossings that day sans the ones with snow bridges. Lot of water coming off the mountain.

[miah66]

I think your bird is a Clark's Nutcracker. It has some cool white marking on the wings when in flight. Like it's cousins, the crows, it has a very annoying call, especially outside your tent at 5 am. Buries it's food in thousands of caches, which it remembers where it puts them all.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Clar ... ker/sounds

[aircooled]

I was up there circling the mountain on the same day and I have to say that the Zig Zag was the least treacherous of the notable water crossings that day sans the ones with snow bridges. Lot of water coming off the mountain.

I think we met you on the trail close to Timberline. Around 7 pm? Blue day pack?

[kepPNW]

Nice report, Jeff! I think I'll give it a few more weeks, and see if I can hit closer to peak. Good to see where it's at.

I was up there circling the mountain on the same day and I have to say that the Zig Zag was the least treacherous of the notable water crossings that day sans the ones with snow bridges. Lot of water coming off the mountain.

Boy, no kidding! Did we (Crusak and I) cross paths with you below Cooper Spur about 3:20? We met two runners there who'd gone clockwise from Timberline Lodge, and were thinking the Elliot was going to be the worst of what was left to cross. Seemed the Newton was flowing pretty good, though, too, when we crossed it later on.

[rainrunner]

I have to agree that the river crossings, though not difficult, do turn away day hikers. On the way to Ramona Falls, there is water to navigate on the other side of the bridge and the couple ahead of us turned back saying the trail ended. Once they saw we didn't have a problem crossing, they continued on. Returning yesterday, we noticed that someone had moved some rocks to make it an easier water crossing.

We never can leave a trailhead before 2pm on Saturdays because of Kevin's work, so you have us beat by two hours.

[adamschneider]

7/19/2040? Shouldn't this be in the "Travels in Time" forum?

[aircooled]

7/19/2040? Shouldn't this be in the "Travels in Time" forum?

Yikes! Thanks for catching that! If I am still hiking in 2040 ... let's see, I'll be 85 ... I'll have to do this hike again since the TR is already written.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

The bird is definitely a Clark's nutcracker. While they are a bit loud/obnoxious I like them anyway.

[joerunner]

I was up there circling the mountain on the same day and I have to say that the Zig Zag was the least treacherous of the notable water crossings that day sans the ones with snow bridges. Lot of water coming off the mountain.

I think we met you on the trail close to Timberline. Around 7 pm? Blue day pack?

That was us I think. There were 3 of us.