Dragontail Peak

Did a trip to Enchantments Lake area with Eina, Paolo, Cihan and Tammy. Camped near Leavenworth on Saturday night. Left Stuart Lake TH at 7 AM. From Aasgard Pass, Eina and I summited Dragontail Peak. The rest (lacking ice axes which were requried for the steep snowfield) enjoyed the Enchantments Basin. Another highlight was swimming in Colchuck Lake. Ci and I thought we were pretty tough but Eina destroyed our egos by outswimming us in the 55 degree waters. I decided that she is part polar bear after she swam around for a couple of minutes after I hustled my skinny ass out of the water.

Some good photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/remierice/20080810dragontail

The rugged "dragontail" ridge was awesome:


This area is one of the most popular in the Cascades. The mostly cloudy weather stymied WA meteorologists once again (they predicted all sun). But at least it didn't rain more than a drop or two. Only saw two groups of people above 7,500 ft.

Camped illegally Saturday night because campgrounds were full. Road had been damaged and cut off 3 of the 6 campgrounds in the area. Campgrounds were perhaps filled with rock climbers who flock to this area. The parking lot treated us well though except for the disastrous loss of Cihan's prized 2nd sandwich. He was thunderstruck in the morning when the sandwich was missing. He was sure he had it in his pack. He threatened all of us with his K A Bar (Marine) knife if we didn't fess up to stealing his sandwich. We have concluded that either an intruding man or beast must have snagged it.

Hike was a good challenge. It was Tammy's first tough hike and she handled it admirably! We made the pass in about 5 hrs, where we saw a mountain goat which Eina tried to tame:


The climb from the pass (7800') to Dragontail (8800') took Eina and I just over an hour. We made it back to the TH (~3400') after 12 hrs total. 5400 vertical ft .. not bad!

After refueling at the self-proclaimed "number one" diner in Cle Elum at about 9 pm, we drove home. I drove Ci crazy with some country music to keep myself awake. He didn't even enjoy "She's no Lady", so I skipped "Bubba Shot the Jukebox".