Enchantment

I went hiking in "the Enchantments," which is a area of lakes up near a town called Leavenworth. My sister conceived it as a trail running weekend, where we would all do shorter runs (like 12 miles and 15 miles) to work up to the final 19 mile enchantments run. But the plan was thwarted from the beginning when the road we were going to take was not open. So we just did the final run first.
It didn't quite work out the first day, there was some communication trouble and we ended up not making it very far along the run, but the second day (sunday) we did it. Or I should say, Bryan, Monica and Abe did it, and Katrina and I just hiked it. But I think hiking is a better way to go through, since we made it in the day, and took lots of time around the lakes to see beautiful things.
I'd been to the lakes before, so I got to remember a lot of the things from the last trip, and it was neat to see them again.
I went swimming in a lot of the lakes, and they are very cold, something near freezing. There was an iceberg in one, but I didn't swim there.
This was the furthest hiking I had done in a day before, so I'm happy to report that 19 miles (or 20, I'm not sure still) is not impossible, and is actually pretty easy, if you go at a decent pace and go all day.
The first picture is Prussik Peak, seen from the upper Enchantments. I think its a cool looking peak, since its so sharp. We climbed up a gradual slope for most of the trip and then came down Asgaurd pass, which is mythologically steep. You look down it and wonder.... then you lean forward and wake up with a jolt and try not to fall.
Of course there are mountain goats wandering around the highlands, and the last time I was up there I got into a pushing war with one. It was coming across a stream and I wanted to cross also, and we met in the middle and I pushed on her head for a little bit and then admitted defeat. Goats can push hard. There were a ton of berries. Cherries, blue elderberries, currants, thimbleberries... All sorts. But no Bears (that we saw).
Just below Snow Lake there is a geyser that comes out of the mountain. It sounds like a jet, and as you come to it, you can see a little house next to it and a cave going in the rock. I'm not sure why its there, or when it was built, but a tube runs down a tunnel from the bottom of Snow Lake and then the water spits out the end, just out into the air. I tried throwing rocks into the flow and they went flying away somewhere, or were vaporized by the blast, I'm not sure which.
Here is a shot of the water blasting past a tree...

The trip was very beautiful, and my legs don't hurt too much, and I am very glad to be in Washington right now. And the full Moon is rising!
But I leave tomorrow for Mexico. I'll arrive in the afternoon and get hit by thunderstorms and hopefully survive the humidity (heat index was 127 today. That means it feels like its 127 degrees out!) and then I'll continue the journey I started a while ago.