7/2, Saturday. I had to get up very early, in order to to meet my driver at 5:20am, because they want to meet at the TH at 7:30. Guess what, our car is the only one that arrived on time. I originally signed up with a different group of 15, too large for my liking. S from my last year's Daniel climb said they have space, so I joined them, hoping for a smaller and faster group. I ended up in some hiking group from Microsoft. Out of the 8 hikers, 6 are from Microsoft (1 is related to Microsoft), and 6 are Indians (except for my driver T and me).
Shooting stars are out, but not as good as I hoped. This patch is right at the trail junction (to Early Peak, next to a creek), the first good patch near the trail. I slipped into the mud after taking this photo, and spent considerable effort afterwards trying to clean my clothes.
This Microsoft group (except S) is quite slow. We made many stops.
They are a nice bunch, young (in the 20s-30s).
The breaks were pleasant enough with small talks.
Just before the meadow, I asked S' permission to go ahead, because I was afraid that they would turn around at the pass.
I reached Navaho Peak at 11:30.
On the way, noticed a few of this Elegant Jacob's Ladder, which is new to me.
Ate a small sandwich. 10 minutes later, I headed down, put some snow into my water bottle.
The snow was about 50' below the summit, for ~100'. Not much.
1/3 way down the peak, met half of the group, so I walked with them up again.
This part of the trail is a bit slippery (loose stones), need a bit of care.
At about 12:40, the last few arrived. The summit got quite crowded.
Headed down again at ~1:20. They decided to meet at Cle Elum bakery after the hike. But it was closed, and downtown Cle Elum was blocked off for some event. Drove home after a gas stop.
