Blow-by-blow account.

Tessa -- I really enjoyed backpacking with you and Julie. Thanks again for being such a help seeing me off and for your confidence-building comments about the doability of snow fields (watching folks traverse the "rebar slab" above Lake Vivian was insightful).

As I told Julie, my other trip was -- as most are -- both humbling and invigorating (and there wasn't much free time involved). That first day, when you dropped me off after we had exited our 3 days in the Enchantments, I spent three humid hours making about 1800 feet up Chatter Creek (carrying what, upon reconsideration, must have been 61-62 pounds starting off). At about 5 o'clock I took the first campsite that I came upon, which was informal -- right on the creek, with a tree-sheltered dry area for cooking/packing and a flat spot barely big enough for the tent.

Next day I just moved about 1400 feet higher and made rough camp in the last flat/meadow before my first pass. Then I spent another full day there resting, getting my first good night's sleep since I left home six days prior. My first full day moving was, as I suspected it would be, my biggest. Slid 100 feet when I dropped my focus while transitioning from scree to snow on a steep bowl ("natural barrier" on the map) that I wasn't supposed to be in (having overshot "Icicle Pass" by following climbers tracks onto the Grindstone Mountain ridge and so accidentally getting a view of an breath-taking off-trail basin -- Spanish Camp -- draining west). Once back on track and descending the north side of that first pass, the trail continued to be buried in snow, and there were few cairns and no tracks, and I overshot a descent (off an interior ridge) that would have taken me down to a fording/camping area, and so I spent the last of 9 hiking hours that day clawing out of a slippery gorge, upstream past a chain of waterfalls, to get to the flat with the ford, at the last moment locating the trail itself, again temporarily.

I backpacked the next two days, hunting for segments of the trail that parallels Icicle Ridge or otherwise picking route over the two side-ridge passes on the wetter/snowier side of my route. The last of those two passes, "Augusta Pass" on "Big Jim Ridge," was the highest at 7300 feet, 700 feet higher than the first pass I had traversed, over Icicle Ridge.

Then, on day 6, a Saturday, I made what became a half-week base camp at Lake Augusta, from which I bagged Big Jim Mountain and Big Lou Mountain, the latter being back up on Icicle Ridge (each mountain is 7763 feet and named after the Whittaker twins http://www.seattlepi.com/sports/article/Legendary-climbers-Lou-and-Jim-Whittaker-turn-80-1299840.php). I had numerous (though distant) views of the back (north) side of The Temple and Prussik Peak, immediately below which is a tempting off-trail lake basin "opportunity" in the Enchantments Core Zone.

The last-day hike, out to Highway 2 (where my friend, Robert, was driving by and saw me), descended 5500 feet over 10 miles. For some reason (overstretching on the rest/fishing day before?), limp-inducing calf pain commenced after about 3 miles.

Details, details.

Overall, although I had some wrenching (mostly shoulder and knee) strains, with moments of give-way pain, there were no new injuries, including no blisters, sunburn, finger/thumb skin cracks, or more than mild pack rash. Lost several pounds of fat and added a few of muscle, and ligaments have basically healed.

On balance, I got nice weather for about half of our/my days in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, almost all at the end. The long periods of daylight were forgiving of my needs for recovery time, a careful pace, and a lot of trail/route seeking. Higher temperatures -- about 75 degrees, starting on July 1 (on July 2 it was 104 next to the Wenatchee River upstream from Leavenworth) -- brought on the advent of mosquitoe season; and on my last night there I slept in a headnet, a first for me, because mosquitoes were going to ground in a high wind and then crawling under the bug screen ground skirt of my rainfly-only shelter.

Watching the territorial (and hungry) spawning cutthroat in the lake outfall (the lunkers at the deep end were too smart to take any of the "baits") and the ten mountain goats, including two kids, chillin' on a snow field about 1/3 mile and 100 feet below Big Lou summit were my wildlife highlights. After the scree collar gnawing at Snow Lakes, there were no more rodent depredations on either gear or food.

Ate a couple of trout cooked in my "tea" kettle (with olive oil from a freeze-dried dinner packet) for lunch on my last full day at the lake. Not a single fire. Stove behaved roaringly, with one field maintenance session at the lake camp and an O-ring seat failure of one of my Sigg fuel bottles (thankfully, I took both, 11- and 18-oz, bottles as an afterthought when I was repacking under the pavilion in the Leavenworth park).

Overall, there were a bunch of fords, none dramatic (especially when sunny) and some I avoided by means of snow bridges. In retrospect, I believe that even the main stem of Chiwaukum Creek would have been fordable, based on how it looked as it flowed about 10 yards from Robert's and my campsite in the Tumwater Campground, just above its confluence with the Wenatchee River (we spent two nights at that campground after he picked me up at the end of my trip). Even if I had known that, however, I wouldn't have planned a different itinerary.

I saw three people, all solo guys, all around the lake. One (day 6) was a dayhiker who had to abort a big loop, due to snow-covered trail/terrain under creekside canopy; one was a frequent backpacker from Seattle in for a 2-nighter (left morning of day 7); and the other (day 9) gave a hoot of irrational exuberance when he got to the lake and then took off somewhere else.

Never did use my ice ax or gaitors and realized that I didn't ditch my extra mesh t-shirt before we parted ways; so I had everything I needed, plus some. Extra clothes were comforting because the more heavily used of two identical fly-only shelters that I own (the one with the bug "screen") proved to be not as waterproof as it used to be and for a few of the wet days the high-low temperature ranged between the high and low 40s (60 degrees felt hot after that). Surprisingly, the only extra food was 1-1/2 lunches; curiously, my appetite increased after the most strenuous days were behind me and I was base camping and peak bagging.

Let me know of a way that is convenient to you for me to pick up the stuff you're holding for me. Also, I have your large stuff sack, which I used in 3 or 4 different ways -- another big help.