Day 2 Fri., Sept 18th
Start: Marion Lake, 9:20am
End: Sunset Lake, 4:45pm, elevation: 9608
Ascent: 2231
Descent: 1860
Miles hiked: 9.7

I went to sleep at 9pm, but woke up often, which is typical when I’m backpacking. I stayed in my warm sleeping bag until I heard Tina this morning getting out of her tent and quietly yelling, “Linda, deer!”

This deer, 10 feet from our tents, was not the least bit concerned with our presence. He walked off only to return sniffing and licking around where I’d stashed my bear canister. I walked within 5 feet and shot off tons of photographs, some using the flash. I had a ball for over an hour but did keep in mind how many deaths there are every year from deer’s striking out with their front legs.

Morning visitor checking out my bear canister.

After the deer got tired of hanging out with the soil around the bear canister (probably another camper had peed back there and the deer liked the salt in the pee) the deer came over to where I’d camped and licked the area on the ground where I had thrown my pee bottle pee out of the tent in the night. The deer moved on to licking my trekking pole handles that were probably pretty salty. We had so much fun watching the deer we didn’t leave camp until after 9am. I also spent a little time photographing light on the lake.

Deer checking out my salty camp gear at Marion Lake.

Tina and I enjoyed the views today. The climb up from Marion Lake took us across Fox Creek Pass. Tina was going to get water at Pass Lake which we never saw. (Once beyond Pass Lake, we looked behind us and noticed a small pond that must have been the Lake at one time.) Down from the Pass we ran into a couple from Boise. We took off our packs and listened while the man shared his knowledge of the area. The next leg of our hike took us up to Death Canyon Shelf. Three miles of the most beautiful views of canyons and peaks.

We lunched at Mount Meek Pass – 9726 feet. Lunch was around 1:30pm and we were already feeling tired. Tina mentioned that she’d forgotten how hard backpacking was. I forget too.

Meek Pass

We had 4.1 miles to go before reaching our camp site Sunset Lake.

View of our campsite, and south where we hiked from, at Sunset Lake.

We had this beautiful cirque lake to ourselves. We cleaned up in the lake and enjoyed the luxury of arriving at camp before 5pm.

Tomorrow we climb 800 feet up Hurricane Pass and haven’t yet decided where we’ll camp. We have entertained the idea of doing this hike with 3 nights out instead of 4. To be determined as LR says.

View from our camp at Sunset Lake. The pass was off to the left of the obvious low area in the range.

Guess who is asleep already and has been for the last hour?

It’s my turn to turn off my head lamp.

Share/Bookmark