Country Mouse and Shadow's Travels: Scree Pie

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Scree Pie

March 10 - Day 60
Our hike today may have been one of the most beautiful hikes ever! It started from our campsite about 1 mile from the start of our climb up Waiau Pass. During our first hour we had a scary moment. I was crossing a river when our fuel bottle fell out of my bag and began floating down river. I yelled for Shadow and he jumped in after it. That could have been
devastating.
We had company today during our hike which was nice. An Austria couple camped close to us and headed to Waiau Pass 30 minutes or so behind us.
The climb up the pass wasn't as difficult as we expected. It was hard and long, but the views were unbelievable. Halfway up was a cool spring that was perfect for a break. Lunch was on top of the pass. With clear blue skies we looked down the valley where we climbed. The other side was a great view of Lake Constance. The easiest way down was to slide. A scree field was the path. Every step was a slightly out of control fall so we just went with it and purposely slide with every step. Much easier on the knees, but one misstep and we'd be eating pie.
A rock side created the deep Constance lake. A well deserved break was takes on its shores before continuing on to the Blue Lake Hut.
Just when we though the day couldn't get much better, we crossed the boulder field that dammed the lake and gazed down to Blue Lake. We descended down to the hut, dropped our bags, and headed to the lake. A sign posted that in 2010 & 2011 this lake was deemed the clearest freshwater in the World outside of Easter Island. It was like an ice cold swimming pool. Similar to Clear Lake in the Oregon Cascade Mountains. We soaked our feet and drank as much as we could after the hot day. The hut is packed tonight. One of the busiest we have seen. Tomorrow we continue in the Alps avalanche country.