Abbott Ridge, Sept. 5, 2012

After a fabulous night sleep, I say "bring on strenuous!"  Today is Abbott Ridge day and apprehensive is no longer in our vocabulary, we are excited!  Yet, it is pouring rain as we arrive at the trail head.  We waited it out which took about an hour then geared up and took off.  I guess I shouldn't say took off, as once again, it is a steep and steady climb but thankfully once again too, there are switch backs.

We paid a visit to Marion Lake which was along the way.

There were two options to get to the meadow below Abbott Ridge.  The short cut or the long route.  We took the long route up which was gentler and went for the short cut down.  The long route afforded us that up close and personal feeling with glaciers.  I did zoom in 35X for this shot.  On the far end of the long route, we had to pass slightly above a steep long snow bridge and that was the only part of the hike that I didn't care for.

The alpine meadow was beautiful!

The rocks reflect in the tiny lake.

We passed by the Observatory.

The trail went on and on and on and we had no idea where we would end up. The thick fog rolled in as we reached the summit.  Just like yesterday, we went a little higher.  The mountain and glacier peaked through so I quickly took care of business before they disappeared again.

As we enjoyed a late lunch on the summit, the clouds and fog began to roll on past.

It was clearing nicely and we didn't want to leave but it was getting on in the afternoon and we still wanted to hike down to the Observatory and take photos around the alpine meadow.

While I enjoyed being on the summit, this meadow was my favourite place of the whole day.

We followed the trail back to where it joined up with the short cut and veered off and now instead of a gentle trail, it was steep and rocky so I popped some Vitamin I, to make sure I would be capable of hiking tomorrow.  Yesterday I was pleased as punch to have completed our first summit, today I was tickled pink to have reached our second summit.  The drive back to base camp wasn't pleasant, I was glad to have made it back in tack.  We toasted with a beer, cleaned up, had dinner, enjoyed a fire then went to bed excited for what tomorrow might bring!