Enchanted

I've had this hike on my bucket list for a while. To overnight camp there, you need to win a lottery... or, take it on as an 18+ mile thru-hike. Having a weekend free and a cousin willing to commit to 12 hours of suffering (also, to leave at the other trailhead), it was on! 

the top of Asgard Pass

I crashed hard the night before the hike, waking up in my bivvy bed an hour late. J1 and co. were waiting at the Snow Creek Trailhead when I finally rolled up, pop tart in hand. We gave two trail runners a lift up to the Colchuck Lake Trailhead, and they regaled us with past thru-hikes. They were planning on an 8-9 hour day, and assured us that our estimate of 10-11 hours was entirely doable.

 The hike up to Colchuck Lake was worth it in itself. Glacier blue, it seemed to dead-end into climber-speckled shards. There didn't seem to be a way out, but sure enough we were bound for a mile-long climb up one of the boulder-strewn headwalls. Had we been an hour earlier, it might have been a little cooler... but it was also nice to have warm sun as we finally came into the glacier pools at the top of Asgard Pass. It was a 4500' view worthy of the Norse gods.

We call this game "spot the mountain goat" (hint: it's a baby!)

We dropped into the first segment of the Enchantments. Each one of the lakes in the "Core Enchantments" has its own colour scheme, its own textures. We were almost on a moonscape, gray and snow-strewn. Even the lichen took on the colours of the granite, muted gray and brown. The glacial pools tinted green against a deep blue sky.

The farther down we moved through the chains of lakes, the more the colour came back into the waters. The larches became thicker and more grasses clustered on little bits of dirt near the water. It was magical... J1 kept commenting that it looked like something out of the Lord of the Rings. At any moment, the Fellowship could have come around the corner singing a walking song!

There were a couple of sketchy snow crossings that we navigated slowly. A slip might have thrown us onto granite boulders, or straight into one of the lakes! I would have felt a little more secure with an ice axe, or even some micro-spikes (which my mountaineer friend did recommend I pack).

Finally, we followed the stream over the ledge and zig-zagged down another headwall, dropping from the Enchantment Core and into Snow Lake. It felt like we were falling like the stream from ledge to ledge, barely in control. Sometimes searching for the cairns that marked the trail led us to swinging down between boulders to the next ledge.

We finally stopped for a real pause next to Snow Lake, still at roughly 5500' elevation.  I went to re-fill our water bottles, and promptly dropped part of my MSR pump valve into the lake. J1 went in waist-deep to try and find it, but kicked up so much silt that it was hopeless. Fortunately, some helpful hikers loaned us their Sawyer Mini filter. (I ordered one from REI a week later to bring along as a back-up for future hikes!)

 Even after dropping into and passing the last lake, we had miles left to get to the Snow Lakes Trailhead. My legs were somewhat numb, knees were starting to ache, water bottles were almost empty... but the lupine and heather were out in full force in the few meadows and open spaces around the lakes. Finally, as the sun set over Snow Wall and the mountains behind Colchuck and Stewart Lakes, we made it back to the car. We still had to ferry back to the upper trailhead, and I was more than a little beat when I finally rolled into my bed at Mom and Dad's!
 

Sunset through burn scarred hills