Spider Meadow is my first ever backpacking overnight, in 2006. That's what got me into backpacking, what I considered my only passion.
Early July is too early for the peek bloom for flowers, but we also hope not peek for mosquitoes!
7/4, Friday. Driving 3+ hours to Phelps Creek TH.
The last 3 miles from Buck Pass TH is much better. The rest of the road is not any better than before, as the recent trip reports indicated.
Very dusty. Parked on the right (east) side of the road - which turns out to be a good choice if you hike out in the morning (still in the shade).
Ate a sandwich before hiking out. Sprayed permetherin head to toe.
72°C, sunny. Rain is in forecast this evening.
Many creek crossings, most are easy, some needs care.
Queen's Cup, Velarian,
Long Bluebell, Meadow Rue, strawberry and thimbleberry are prolific along the forested trail.
Saw only 1 or 2 tiger lily by the trail, a few more along the road.
Many butterflies. 2 kinds: white with red dots, and brown.
By the time we arrived at Spider Meadow, the sky was overcast. Still, this view made my heart sing, even though this is my 4th time here.
Maybe I'll scatter my ashes here some day.
Lots of campers here already.
Climbed up a big boulder at the beginning of the meadow for a break.
Flowers is best 5 minutes north now. Maybe 10 days too early.
Most prominent is bluebells. Paintbrush, jacob's ladder, very few lupine and columbine
Continued north crossing the meadow.
I found 2 good tent sites at the north end, more secluded.
At the next trail junction, turn right onto Phelps Basin - another beautiful circle of towers.
My 3rd time camping here.
There's a good camp site already taken by a ranger.
We crossed Phelps Creek by this site. Had to take off hiking boots and roll up pant legs.
Pitched the tent at the other viable site at the lower basin.
Here's a photo of Sunday morning, when the sky is bluer.
After setting up the camp, walked a bit north to the heather fields.
The pink ones are blooming very well, interspersed by anemone's seed heads.
There are also quite some
Crusick's speedwell,
Thompson's paintbrush or
western paintbrush, a few shooting stars,
Lace fern,
Dark clouds were getting lower.
A bit windy, no mosquito problem.
After cooking dinner, we crawled into bed.
7/5, Saturday. Up at 6am.
Repacked for the day. I stored food in this odor-proof bag, and laid on a patch of snow.
Crossed the creek and back to the trail junction.
The ranger asked if we wanted her tent site, as she was leaving, after 3 nights here.
She informed us that mosquitoes are pretty bad in Lyman Lakes basin.
Headed towards Spider Gap.
The first mile or so to "Larch Knob" camp is on a drier (south facing) slope.
A lot of flowers here. Looking down to Spider Meadow is also very nice.
Larch Knob camp has a couple of sites, good view. A little creek between the camp and a rock wall.
This photo is taken by the wall.
Continued up to Spider Gap. Shortly above Larch Knob, snow is solid.
Very good sticky condition, now slushy or icy. Micro-spikes are perfect.
At the upper section, just below Spider Gap, there's an easy ramp to the right ridge, with minimal extra elevation gain.
Great view of Phelps Basin below and the peaks to the east.
At the gap proper, Lyman Lake basin below looks so inviting.
Here, to the right, we can see a track through the snow and rock, conincide with the Spider Gap high route.
An early lunch break. Mosquitoes were annoying from now on, if you stop. Put on head net.
Glissaded down the upper steeper part.
Lots of red algea on the snow, so much so that I thought we cut ourselves.
At the bottom of the snow field, followed the trail east of the first Lyman Lake.
A lot of heather flowering, all 3 kinds: pink, cream, white. Started to see larches.
Met 2 ladies with empty overnight packs going the opposite direction: towards Spider Gap.
They inquired about the snow condition. They came from Suiattle River TH west of here (off Hwy 530, north of Darrington).
Continued north to the Upper Lyman camp.
On the way, saw many marsh marygold, a few shooting stars. More larches.
Saw a tent with 2 chairs. Great location.
The lake here is small, more like a swelled river. Still glacial blue. Very pretty.
Ate the rest of lunch here. Quiet and no one else.
The next ~3 hours are an adventure.
Spent some time looking for trail 1256.4 marked on Gaia GPS map, which I'll reference this here as Spider Gap high route.
Couldn't find any trail.
I followed this virtual track over the grassy area east of Upper Lyman camp.
Scrambled up a verticle wall, via some trees. At some point, I had to crawl over some tree branches.
I came out of here on to a plateau. Took this photo, in case I need to retrace my way back.
I marked in green on the map.
After this initial scramble, it's a gentle slope with trees and grass.
Then the 2nd scramble, I stayed between this talus field and vegetation. Also marked green.
The pink on the picture is more or less where I went.
Once on the ridge, it's more or less flat.
Less snow as I went south. I saw faint track from time to time, and deer prints.
View is excellent to both directions. Many larches. Some mosquitoes.
The south 1/3 of this "high route" is traversing a large talus slope west of the ridge.
I wish I brought my helmet. Once awhile I found some track, and followed it for 2 minutes, and then it disappeared to some steep rock scramble. It happened more than once.
I stayed mostly at 7000', a little lower than what's indicated on the map.
The view west to Lyman Lakes is nice.
Near Spider Gap itself, I found the clear track which I saw when I went down Spider Gap on snow.
Saw people on the snow up and down the gap.
I connected to the main track just below the Gap.
Saw a ptarmigan.
The 2.2 mile 1256.4 high route took me 3 hours.
The rest is straight forward.
Back to camp ~5:30pm.
The site where the ranger was is now occupied.
The snow patch where I laid my food had completely disappeared.
Cooked dinner.
Waiting for sunset for hours, but no color. Our basin has high ridges both east and west, blocking sunrise and sunset.
Stars were not very good at night. The sky wasn't dark, could see the surrounding without flash light.
A bit windy at night. Only saw 1 mosquito.
7/6, Sunday. Up before 6am.
Walked up to the heather field for photos.
Cooked breakfast.
Packed up.
Reached TH around 11:40am.
40 min delay from Gold Bar to Sultan.
Otherwise, smooth sailing.
During the scramble on Saturday, my pants were torn apart :)
I had to wrap my fleece around my waist when I took the train home.
A lesson: hiking clothing needs elasticity!
Armed with bug spray and bug net, I didn't get a single mosquito bite.
Despite of loosing my beloved umbrella, and ripped pants, I call it a success.
7/17, Thursday. Seattle Aquarium hosts a booth at Pier 62 for Sea You At The Waterfront, quite a few days this summer.
I stopped by this Thursday to check out what is it about.
2-3 (very) young employees, showing anyone who's interested to pop in.
2 bottles with different mesh in the water to fetch sample.
Squeeze a few drop of that water on a plate to view plankton at a nice compact microscope.
Saw many chains of diatons. One jelly fish like little bubble, who moves around.
All displayed on the flat screen monitor, which is nice and easy to see, but too dim to show up on my photo.
One unexpected obstacle is wind, which blows the water away from the focus area.
This same evening, Glazier's had an open house for the Analog Week.
This lady proudly showed up her collection of miniature cameras.
One (top left) can take 4 sequential shots.
I was surprised to see a large turn out: so many people are still taking film photos.
