Frog Beach at Poison Meadow

My headache was still going strong in the morning despite a good night's rest. Topsy Turvy gave me three Advil and I accepted them greedily. Later we go tinto a political argument about immigration and I'll bet she wished that she could take those Advil back. Occasionally I get into arguments with people out here on the trail about political issues. There are all types of people out here. Granola types, conservatives, eco-fascists, religious fanatics, you name it, they're out here. I think Bandit and Sprinkles would appreciate it if I didn't ransack everyone I meet who has a different opinion than I do but sometimes I can't help myself. It starts as a civil discussion but sometimes escalates to an unproductive argument. That's not what happened in this case. I think we had a civil disagreement but then again I'm an east coast cat and sometimes what we think is a civil disagreement is looked at like a vicious argument by Westies.

I had some more gastrointestinal issues before we got on our way and I hope I brought enough paper.

We hiked through varying levels of snow and passed several places where people are going from and coming back onto the trail. At one point we found an old corral by a swampy lake where we got some food. We saw some trout in the stream and the fellas got very excited to do some fishing. They both brought rods with them and can't wait to catch something.

Nearing the end of the day, we passed up a good campsite at "Trail Pass" where a bunch of hikers had stopped including Mother Goose, Sunshine and a few others. We decided to get a little further on down the line. Unfortunately we ran into a LOT of snow. This is pretty much where the turning point was. After Trail Pass the trail really began to be covered mostly in snow. It took us a while to get anywhere because we kept losing the trail and there were no places to camp that were either flat or not snow-covered. We were following footprints and sometimes they were and sometimes they weren't on the actual trail. We followed the footsteps into a flat area but we were way off the trail. We heard a shout from our left and it was Yankee with Swiss Miss telling us that the trail was up the hill a little to our left. Up ahead the footsteps led to a large meadow that was wet, muddy and full of cow patties. Bandit's cattle resentment was coming back. On the other side of "Poison Meadow" we saw what looked sort of like a beach. We suspected that the sandy area was dry and so we made for it. We were in Bear Country now and this looked like a prime spot to find one. We had to cross a creek in the middle of the meadow and Bandit pulled off a daring leap across a big gap. I filmed it. WE found a great spot on the other side of the meadow and we set up camp and started a fire. It was getting pretty cold. We sat around the fire and dried our soaking wet shoes and socks. The roar of the stream was seasoned with the chirping of thousands of frogs as the stars came out. It was like being on some strange beach at 10,000 feet.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
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