A fun, key exchanging group of Mountaineers hiked 16.5 miles from Fryingpan Creek to Box Canyon. The snow crossing just under Panhandle Gap is a little dicey (photo 2), I used spikes, the 4 other people in the southbound group did not. There are a few not-too-scary ways to cross Nickel Creek.
Flower highlights (north to south) - The mile before Summerland is quite flowery, many Cascade asters are blooming, with scarlet paintbrush, crimson columbine, bistort, valerian, white rhododendron, and more. Summerland has mostly subalpine daisies (photo 4), bistort, and coiled lousewort. The mile beyond Summerland has lots of pink and some yellow monkey flower coming in, there are many interesting flowers in the wet areas: a few saxifrages, bird's beak and elephant's head lousewort, yellow coralbells, arnica, silver leaf phacelia, magenta paintbrush, and many more. The northern drop into Indian Bar has really pretty flowers: thick Cascade asters and scarlet paintbrush, pink and yellow heather (the thickest blooms I've seen this year), sickletop lousewort (photo 3), and more. The southern climb out of Indian Bar was disappointing, only a few of the lupine plants are blooming. There are many other flowers and the whole Indian Bar passage has spectacular views! Descending South from 5930, there are spots of asters, beargrass, and others. The lower meadows have the thickest lupine I have seen this year (photo 1), it was delightful! I'll be repeating this hike once or twice every year!
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