29 August 2017, Tuesday

This morning we both feel surprisingly good after yesterday’s hike. We decide to drive to the Lupine Meadows trailhead and go as far as we can up the switchbacks that lead to Garnet Canyon. We get a later than expected start because of a long conversation with our next campsite neighbors about travelling in Vincent. They are on a two week vacation in Yellowstone and Grand Teton and we are living their retirement dream. The husband and wife (Kelly and Dene) are very interested in Vincent so we give them a tour. (O plans to ask for a commission from Mercedes when we get home for single-handedly causing a Sprinter sales spike out west.)

We finally proceed to the trailhead where we are entertained by the “no swimming” sticker on the pit toilet door. Here we also meet a young Pakistani rheumatologist currently working in Maine. His colleague and mentor is a rheumatologist I knew in my pre-retirement life. O and I begin our hike up the ridge of glacial moraine. We have agreed to hike up for no more than 2 hours, have our lunch snack and then hike back down as we both want time this evening to clean up, have dinner and get organized for an early departure tomorrow. The views from the trail in both directions are beautiful as we hike up and begin the switchbacks that climb to a trail junction. As we walk we hear thunder rumbling in the surrounding mountains and we see scattered showers around the valley. There is enough of a cooling shower falling on us that I tuck my camera into my backpack.

By our two hour time limit we have reached the junction. One branch heads for Garnet Canyon and the other to Amphitheater Lake, but this is as far as we go on this trip. We stop to enjoy our lunch and the distant showers and then return down the trail. The scattered showers have cleared some of the smoky haze from the mountains. We drive north back to camp and prepare for an early morning departure.