Rae Glacier September 5, 2019

Today's hike into Rae Glacier was more of a mission for me, in addition to sharing mountain time with my Thursday friends.  I had been to Rae Glacier once back on August 9, 2008.  Now eleven years later I was curious to see what the glacier looked like.  To get there we have to get up that first grunt to get to the ever beautiful Elbow Lake.  It was quiet and calm here and the reflection was amazing.  

We skirted the right side of Elbow Lake passing through the back country campsites.   At the very end of the lake we veered right into the forest.  We came out of the forest and it was now time to follow along the side of the creek.  What a load of boulders and rocks.  It was a wide mess.  We followed cairns and flagging to get us to where we needed to go.

I was paying more attention to what was behind us and it looked prettier than what was in front of us.  From here behind us was Elpoca Mountain, Cats Ears, Piper Pass and Tombstone Mountain.  We took a few minutes here to admire the views and capture photographs.

 That little red area down below caught my eye.

I love the autumn shades that appear in late summer.

 Well there it is!  

Rae Glacier!  

Up there in the middle towards the right!  

That's it!  

That's where we are headed!

 The trail follows along side the creek.

I'm still looking behind me.

colorful shrubs amongst the rubble

After eating some of my lunch, I ascended the slope to get a higher up view.  

You can see my friends on the lower left still savouring their lunch and the scenery.

 My friends found fossils.

 another fossil

 taking in the view of Elpoca Mountain before continuing on towards Rae Glacier

Back on August 9, 2008 when we ventured up to Rae Glacier, we actually made an adventure out of it.  The Glacier was big enough, long enough and close enough that after lunch a few of us hiked up to a high point and slide down on rain capes and jackets to the bottom.  Note the picture here on the left compared to the picture under the collage.  

This is Rae Glacier today!  A mere fraction of what it was eleven years ago.  There would be no hiking up it and sliding down today.  I was rather shocked to see how small it was but really I should not be.  In another eleven years it will be gone.  

We carried on with the hike back the way we went up but once we got back to Elbow Lake we looped around the other side to get a view from a different vantage point.  The flowers were still pretty.  I was lingering along this section as I love this location.  I was remembering back to last summer when I stayed at the back country campground for two nights.  I was secretly wishing I was staying here tonight.

 Elbow Lake is even more colorful at the end of the day.

Mission accomplished!  I saw Rae Glacier and I had a wonderful time sharing this part of our mountain playground with my friends.  I always learn lots from these friends both while on the trail and during the commute to and from.  I have now added geocaching to my list of things to try.

Thank you for such a lovely day!