Decided to do a day trip back to Grouse Ridge to find the Glacier Lake Trail that I failed to last weekend. Was a pretty cold (about 50 degrees F) and windy day but was a great hike. I got reminded of a few important bits on this hike:
1) Check the weather! I went in short sleeves and shorts like I did last weekend. Of course last weekend it was 20 degrees warmer in the valley. The temperature and the wind made today's hike a bit rougher than it needed to be. I should have worn the long clothes and brought the vest.
2) Look behind you once in awhile when on a new trail. Totally followed the wrong trail when leaving Glacier Lake. Instead of taking the due west path I ended up taking a NW path. But I did get to practice my compass navigation while going off trail. Use compass to orientate the direction you want to go, pick out a landmark, walk to said landmark, repeat until you get back to your trail.
3) Charge the camera battery before leaving
This also marked the final trip for my boots. About a mile and a half from the end I felt what I thought was a rock in the boot along the ball of my left foot. After it went from annoying to "gah!" I stopped, took it off, wiped off the sock and the inside of the boot without finding a rock. But I could feel all the honeycomb on the inside of the boot. Put it back on and started going and that feeling came back. The boot was rubbing that spot and caused a blister (minor one). Since the tread is pretty shredded and is coming away from the boot I decided to just retire them.
Pics:
https://picasaweb.google.com/116435020345246671945/GlacierLakeTrail62412
