Wednesday 22 August 2018

After breakfast O and I return to the Bear Valley Visitor Center to obtain our back country permits. We park Vincent in the overflow lot, top off water bottles and shoulder our packs The hike to Sky Camp is not long, but on the way we accumulate 470 meters of elevation gain. We are grateful for the cool, moist air, but we are sweating anyway as we climb. The forest is dense with tall firs and shrouded in mist. We arrive at site 5 by 2:20 only 2 hours after departing the parking lot. Site 5 is in a small clearing surrounded by more fir trees. We set up our new Nemo Dagger tent. It goes up easily although I have to move a rather large olive colored slug out of the way.

This is pretty luxurious camping for O and me. We have a food locker at our site. Just down the hill are clean pit toilets and there is a water spigot with potable water. After preparing and eating dinner we go for a short walk to check the beginning of tomorrow’s route. I photograph some bright orange lily-like flowers along the way.

On our return I retrieve my pack from beneath the fly of the tent and find the giant green slug checking out its pockets! I think I will store my pack on top of the food locker with the rain cover on to protect it from dew. I don’t think the slug will be interested in climbing up there.