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Saturday, September 6, 2008 (Day 2)

As mentioned in the journal from yesterday, I don't have much information on the cross-country route we are hiking to reach Trail Crest. I will get what informaion I can from Doodah Man and post it at that time. Soldier Lake was gorgeous this morning.

Here is a recap from mid-afternoon. We arrived at Lake 12,130' below Crabtree Pass at approximately 4:00pm. We were at a stalemate - camp for the night & get an early start in the morning or push on up Crabtree Pass and up over Discovery Pinnacle. We debated the issue, weighed the pros and cons for some time and I honestly felt we should camp and get an early start in the morning. We decided Linh and Doodah Man would get dinner started, while Martin and I would check out the route(s) up to Discovery Pinnacle and see if we could push on tonight.

I grabbed a water bottle and a jacket and proceeded up Crabtree Pass. This climb looked a lot tougher than it was. I took the left side of the pass and Martin took the right. Now I didn't have a pack during this climb but it was still easier than expected. Martin and I met at the top and began to figure out the best route from this point to Discovery Pinnacle. There is supposed to be a passable route that we read about online, but even with a printout of the route, we simply couldn't locate it. There were several 'chutes' we could choose from to attempt Discovery Pinnacle. I decided I could drop down this side of the pass and see how the next climb would be. I choose one of the middle 'chutes' and quickly realized I had chosen the wrong route. I climbed about 100 feet and hit a steep rock face with minimal hand-holds. It could be climbed, but would be tough witha full pack. So I turned around and worked my way back up to Martin on Crabtree Pass. It was obvious there was no way we could attempt this section tonight. So we headed back to set up camp and eat our dinner. This scouting trip confirmed we had made the right decision to set up camp and get an early start tomorrow.

We filled Linh & Doodah Man in on the scouting trip and figured it'd be best to get everyone to the top the pass in the morning and then figure out which route we would take. Linh & Doodah Man looked relieved to not have to push on tonight. It'd been a rough cross-country route over the past 2 days, and it was more challenging than any of us had anticipated.

I found a flat, sandy spot near some boulders to set up my 'cowboy camp'. There was a small passage between the boulders, roughly 2ft x 3ft. I saw a lot of marmot tracks in the sand and thought it might be a good idea to block this area. I filled in the passage with some rocks to the point where a marmot would not be able to sneak into my camp. It was a smart move! I was awoken at 3:00am to a pissed-off marmot, screeching on the other side of the rock pile. He was not happy to have his normal route blocked.

We had our dinner and there wasn't much conversation tonight. I don't know if everyone was tired, irritated, pissed, ???. But there was definitely some tension around the campsite. I ate my dinner up on a large boulder next to Lake 12,130'. It was a beautiful campsite, and was very quiet and secluded.

Everyone started to 'turn in' around sunset, and we agreed to set our alarms for 4:20am, to allow us an early start in the morning. I grabbed my journal, JMT guide book and my reading book and curled up in my sleeping bag. I was up for several hours writing and reading, as the rest of the camp were 'sawing logs'.