Cascade lake

So, where did we leave off? Oh yeah, the awful mosquitos, which 100% deet only served to prevent them from biting you... or I should say, some of us:



And we had come out of one overnight backcountry hike, saw some geysers and then headed back in to another... at dusk. With a storm approaching...



But still, we were in good spirits:



We only had about a 3 mile hike in to the campsite, however, so we just booked it and prayed the storm held off. It was also prime bear country - the ecotone between meadow and forest. At dusk. We made sure to talk loudly about how tasty we would be to the bears, especially when hiking around blind turns.



We got the campsite in the nick of time. The sun was going down and just as we set up the tents and got the bear bags up it started to hail. We enjoyed a beautiful lightening storm and slept poorly since we erected the tents hastily and therefore on a slope. The next morning this was the view out of the tent.



And the slope we were on:



I had gotten up a little earlier to use the little girl's room and this was the Cascade Lake Meadow at dawn:





I was up before the boys and I saw some people fishing on the lake, so I deemed it safe enough to take a little solo hike around Cascade Lake:





I spotted this little guy:



And then this one, who clearly knew how to get a better view:



Nick came down to look for me:



Next up: Observation Peak...