Tired and Sore with Lingering Happiness Part Two: High Tea

High Tea


Eventually I figured out that the eblogger editor wouldn't let me post any more pictures on the last entry so I continue here. This is a marmoset on the left and a little brown rodent below.

Our first tea party, one hour into the hike. Phil heated water with a little gas heater in a little kettle. We only packed two cups. Phil is sharing a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter. Brenton wished for a peanut butter clif bar and got one.
We are resting just a little below where Phil and a friend were caught in a blizzard last May (the same day I had my surgery in Mexico) and had to spend the night in a a makeshift tent. Not far from them two experienced climbers died that night. Today the mountain is hospitable with rock outcroppings surrounded by wildflowers under the sunshine.

The Nisqually Glacier is to the left of Brenton, Phil and me. "What's that noise?" I ask. "Is that traffic?" It's the sound of Pebble Creek running just ahead. We liked the way the snow was textured in the drift behind Brenton and me. You'll have to click on it to make it bigger and see it for yourself.

Our guide gives us a choice: Keep ascending or detour laterally a bit to the outhouses at Panorama Point. We ascent to ascend and begin the second hour of our trek.

The landscape is generally snow-covered by now but we and this little brown bird find a rock island.
Two hours into our journey we take another break on the rock island


Time to get out the water bottle and more brown rice crispy bars. We're warm now. Hats and gloves are off.
Clouds obscure and reveal.








I can't remember what Phil has in the bag at his feet. Notice the other hiker off to the right. We make guesses of the height of the rock behind Phil. Brenton enjoys some trail mix.

Phil shared nuts and wasabi peas.



Is it possible that Brenton has a halo?
Little brown bird still expresses interest in us.

The rock is 5-6 ft. tall. If I move up the rocks beyond it, it makes a nice screen for my hiking partners to relieve themselves. Phil knows an obscure Bible passage about pissing against rocks.

This is not a polar bear in a blizzard.

Continued in Part 3.