63. Piper Pass

Distance: 21k round trip
Elevation gain 617 m

Wednesday, August 2, we hiked Elbow Lake/Piper Pass with Harry and Tena. We hoped for nice weather and not much smoke. The theological/spiritual discussion in the car made the miles fly by and we were at the trail head before I realized it. The first part of the hike would be very familiar because we had already done Tombstone Lakes and Rae Lake in previous years.
We got right to work and hiked up to Elbow Lake.

The next part of the trail was a quite level, old, wide road which made conversation easy and again the kilometers passed quickly.

We had to turn north off this road into Piper Valley and cross the ice cold Elbow River but we were prepared.

After the wide road, the trail to the meadow was very narrow but clear.The day was warming up.

The most beautiful wildlife on this hike was the butterflies. I counted 6 varieties including this painted lady (which was also frequently seen in our backyard this August).

Also along the narrow trail were small clearings filled with flowers.

Then the woods opened up with a grand view to the pass. Harry and Tena explored the meadow while we tackled the pass.

Once up the steep, scree trail we took a picture of our successful selves with the other side in the background.

Then a picture back down the trail we had come up. Definitely a warm day now.

On the way back we decided to try a bushwhacking shortcut described in Copeland's book since we had seen a small cairn marking the beginning. Herm led the way and did an excellent job leading us back to the main trail. This time the streams were small enough to rock hop across.

We got back to the trailhead having taken significantly longer than the book suggested, but it was still a beautiful warm day and the picnic tables were in the sunshine so we ate a picnic supper at the end of the parking lot. The day was everything we had wished for.