Burned section.
Today was our other long day at 12 miles so I got started earlier. The first part of the day was in trees and lots of cloud and rain but the terrain was awesome. It was such a good day. I solo hiked today. We passed through the burned section which looked so cool. Then the forest turned into an overlook of this beautiful blue lake. You could see the ferry crossing through. It finally led to the next Refugio where we all took a break from the rain. The campsite there looked amazing. It was all exposed but so pretty.
I loved the colors on this boardwalk.
I didn't stay long and wanted to take advantage of the sun again and headed out. I passed the ranger who asked for my reservation but didn't have it on me. He gave me the ok after told him my name that I was w the group of six that was ahead of me. The trail went into a valley and climbed up. Everything after here was so amazing, windy and rainy. The sun did come in and out so I dried off every other time. I finally saw the floating ice when I rounded the overlook and got closer and closer to grey glacier. It was kind of cloudy but still so cool. Almost every viewpoint was insanely windy. I'm not sure if this was the most intense wind I've ever been in. There were some pretty gnarly ones in the desert on the pct. I felt pretty used to it. So many people passing by asked if I was cold in my shorts but I was not. It felt amazing.
I loved this part of the day.
Heading into Paine grande
This area reminded me of alpine lakes wilderness.
After a long steep down on rocks, water and mud I reached our Refugio and checked in. I walked in our tiny room and it just reeked. The boys told me there wasn't any dinner reservations left so that was a bummer. I was looking forward to a warm meal but that will just have to wait I suppose. I ended up hanging downstairs for a bit and went back up when steff got in. We finally all went back down to hang and had wine. I wanted to pass out after two glasses so I came up and went to bed. Basically we just finished the w trek! Yay. It was short but was so beautiful every single day. Tomorrow we will back track and ride the ferry back. We are kind of playing it by ear and figuring out what to do next as we still have two more days in the park.
Most of the views of the glacier were socked in.