The sun crested over the high mountain peaks around 6:00AM, waking everyone up. Most of us fell back asleep until 9:30AM. Another blue bird day, not yet hot due to a small, very chilly wind. We ate breakfast watching a pair of golden eagles soaring above the mountains above us then prepared for a day hike up the side valley. We embarked about 11:30AM. It was rather slow going over the boggy tundra but we found many old moose sheds. We stopped for a late lunch beneath a beautiful waterfall which also happened to have two Dall sheep in the little grassy valley above it. Then a golden eagle soared above them! Quite the show for lunch.
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| Breakfast |
Rob decided to hang out for a bit longer in that amazing spot then make his way back to camp to rest his foot. The rest of us continued on to scout out a possible pass into the Jago. We did come across a small blond grizzly about 100 yards away. It was looking at us while air scenting, eventually sitting up on its hind legs before taking off in the opposite direction. We saw more amazing waterfalls as we climbed further into the valley, thus Krista and I dubbed it Valley of the Waterfalls.
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| "Valley of the Waterfalls" |
We decided to scope out the original route we had considered doing and started gaining elevation fast. At this point Matthew went into hyper drive (man can he hike fast!) and Matt was right on his tail. Mat hung back while Krista and I struggled with a river crossing. We climbed to a ledge that looked up valley where I decided to hang out while the others continued on. Mat left me with some water and snacks and he and Krista continued on to catch up with Matt and Matthew. An hour later Krista came back. The pass looked doable and the Mat(t)-Pack were looking to ascend the pass and look down the other side. There was still 700ft left to ascend so she decided to turn around, pick me up, and head back at camp.
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| Looking for a pass into the Jago River valley |
Krista and I had a lovely walk back, reaching camp at 8:30PM. We joined Rob and made our dinners while the mosquitos came out in force. Eventually, the sun dropped below the ridge and we retreated to our warm sleeping bags. The Mat(t)s rolled in around 10:45PM, having successfully reaching the top and scouting a doable route.
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| Krista reaching camp |
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