Day 6 - Who's Next?

Thursday, July 22, 2010, Day 6

Daily Stats: Below Frozen Lake to Glacier Lake, Starting Time 8:10-Finishing Time 4:35, Distance-8.77 miles, Moving Time-4.75 hrs, total Ascent-2427', Total Descent-2447'

Sometimes it is the craziest events in a day that make you smile. They come out of nowhere, totally unexpected and completely out of context, yet make you giggle and smile for hours afterwards. More about that later, because the expected events of today also put that same smile on my face that has been plastered there since we walked away from the cars about a week ago.
We had our first bug free night last night, so we slept out to see the stars. It was glorious. The moon robbed much of the post sunset viewing, but I awoke at 4 this morning and star gazed, using my iPhone to help locate constellation and planets. I dozed off for a half an hour or so, then awoke as the eastern sky began to show the first signs of dawn. I lay in my bag for the next 45 minutes watching the earth spin toward the sun, the brightening sky causing the stars to wink out until only Sirius could be seen. I stood in my sleeping bag for the last half hour as the sun's light kissed the peaks
to our west and slowly climbed down to greet us. It was a glorious morning!
After the morning routine of breakfast and packing we headed out across the broad plain to the east to find the JMT. Once in the trail we began to see people, something that had not occurred for a few days. Two Park Rangers were checking permits as people walked by. From the questioning and conversation I felt like I was crossing some international border instead of hiking up a trail.
The next 6 miles were all on trail as we climbed up over Mather's Pass and down the other side to Palisades lake.
I knew we were sure to encounter lots of people while hiking this 6 mile stretch of the JMT. We were not disappointed. We passed 32 people before we again left the trail (10,400') and began our climb to Cirque Pass.
The climb to Cirque Pass was wonderful. 1700' up, with cliffs, loose talus, waterfalls, huge boulders, long slabs of bedrock and babbling brooks along it's steep glacial valley. Two thirds of the way up we found a gigantic boulder perched on two other boulders creating a huge room beneath that all six of us could have comfortable camped in. As always we were greeted with spectacular views when we finally crested the ridge at 12,100'. We admired the scenery, oohing and awing at the Palisades and the lakes and tarns at their bases, took pictures and had a very animated discussion about how absolutely awesome the trip
is and how incredible the terrain is we are climbing through. We clambered down the slabs of granite toward the lake in the cirque. I was in the lead on the decent, nearing the bottom when Andy Smith called from above, "Hey Chuck, what's your favorite album?" I yelled back, "Quadrophenia by the Who!"
Andy replied, "How about Who's Next?" I looked to my right and there stood a solid block of square granite standing vertically on the ledge, the spitting image of the Who's album cover for Who's Next?
The four of us men could not pass up the opportunity, and the result is attached to this post. We tried wetting the rock to complete the scene, but the water did not discolor the rock enough to show. Still, we were proud of our artwork and giggled and laughed about it the rest of the evening.