Post
by Chip Down » August 3rd, 2020, 9:28 pm
Okay, I retract my statement that you could play football there. Lots of flowers, lovely braided creeks. I don't think I've seen it like this. I think I've been here only late in the year, like oct/nov. Now I love this place even more!
This wasn't a planned trip. Early Sunday morning I was looking for something to do, and decided this was it. So with essentially no sleep, I packed up and hit the road, arriving at Cloudcap at 7am. It was a hot hike along the crowded trail, but I suffered through it knowing the cold zone awaited.
First creek I hit was silty, and I hadn't thought to bring a prefilter, but the football field was braided with strong-running clear creeks. Although I had other places I wanted to visit, this was a perfect campsite, so I dropped all the overnight gear and continued up and clockwise, revisiting some favorite Newton Clark sites.
When I finally returned, later than expected, it was windy and in the shade, the sun already behind hood. I discovered the football field was a bit damp under three inches of sand-and-gravel, and I worried slightly about seepage, but I decided it was drained well enough. (Indeed, the bottom of my footprint was just a little soppy in the morning, no problem. Overnight wind was more of a problem, as if pranksters were molesting my tent all night.)
With a couple hours left before total darkness, I played a little more, reminiscing about certain spots, remembering what they looked like when ice dams formed and created skating rinks (seems to be a common occurrence here).
I couldn't see the sunset from here, but I was treated to moonrise, full, tinted (maybe because of a fire I noticed earlier).
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Attachments
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- One of my favorite waterfalls. A bit secluded, easy to overlook. No chance of having to share it. Cool overhanging rock. Nice place to sit and just watch the water tumble into the void.
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- A little pond on ridgecrest! Had to go check it out.
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- Here it is. No inlet, must be fed by water that drains from snowfield under the rocky surface of the ridge.
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- Great campsite. Sandy level spaces, smooth glacier-polished rocks for comfortable seating, even some flowers. But nothing to do here, you're kinda stuck. Anyway, did it already, many years ago.
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- Tent circled.
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- Another perspective on my camp (lower right).
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- sunrise
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- Found on NC glacier
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- Aircraft part.
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- Given the state of our China relations, I thought this was appropriate. Discovered in the morning that I didn't finish my second one, so had stout with my oatmeal.
And because it's ringed by higher terrain, it has built-in bleachers for spectators. Mike and I could be captains, and we'd pick our team from the oregonhikers roster. More realistically, it would be a fun place for something requiring less people, like maybe frisbee golf.
