Back the Way We Came

Our 4 days of base camp are done!  It's time to fold the tent, roll up the sleeping pad, stuff the sleeping bag, and cram everything into the pack for the day and a half trek back to Circle Lake.

Since we've already been on this route, it's time to look around.  The "spring" flowers are amazing, as are the lichens and other plant or "semi-plant" life.

It was also fun to follow the Arrigetch Creek back out of the mountains.  It's a beautiful cold clear creek.  The other evening I washed myself and some of my clothes.  When I washed my hair, my whole head hurt from the cold.  Glorious.

The sound of the river had been with us for 6 days.  It was early enough in the spring that considerable water was running.  The few times we were beyond hearing the stream, it almost seemed strange.

This video is taken at our lunchspot on the way back down. 

Here are a few flowers for you to look at.  Mary Louise identified them all with a book when we got back but I didn't.  She's a lot better at that.  

These on the right were just so pretty in a generally bleak landscape. 

The lichens, or at least I think they were lichens, were just amazing.

I confess that I know almost nothing about them.

But look how these on the right grow in concentric circles on top of the rocks.  How come?

I don't think I've ever seen such brilliant lichen colors as in the Arctic.  What a pretty yellow.

This picture doesn't lend itself to the brilliant orange lichen that was prevalent on the rockscapes.  Pretty neat, huh?

I can't describe the profusion of this brain-web white lichen.  That's all I can think of - the connected dendrites of a brain in huge form - all in a mass.

OK, you come up with something better.










These are just a few of the flowers and growing things that we saw.