what a difference a year makes

After Paul left us to go back east, the weather turned clear and sunny and hot (80s-90s). On Saturday, after H went for a long road ride and I weeded and chatted with a neighbor, we decided to escape the heat and go for a hike. Since we weren't getting started until after 12noon, we wanted someplace close - which meant Millcreek, Big Cottonwood or Little Cottonwood Canyons - and we wanted someplace that maybe didn't have too much snow.

H heading up, with the Sundial behind him

We decided to do the hike to Lake Blanche (and Florence and Lilian) again, in Big Cottonwood Canyon. This was H's second time and my third time up there, as we'd both done this hike last October (click through here for a description of the hike and autumn photos) and I'd done it last June (the same weekend even) with some work friends. It's still beautiful, still steep and still popular; with our late start, however, we came across more folks coming down than going up.

Lakes Florence and Lilian still in their winter garb

The stream alongside the trail was cranking, fed with the snowmelt in the warm temperatures. Even so, we hit snow at around 8,100 feet and walked the rest of the way up to the still mostly frozen lakes on the white stuff. It was pretty well compacted and not too slushy so the walking was actually pretty easy. Going down was even more fun as we got to do some glissading - in my case, only when no one was around to see me flailing like a pig on ice.

Note the concentration

You can see from the photos here how much snow is still up there. Last June, there was only a little in the shady crevices, and if you click through to the post on this hike from last October, you can see what the scenery looks like without the white blanket. They say that the flood threat this year is going to continue longer than normal due to the excess snow. It's all got to go somewhere and that somewhere is downstream.