Mount Rose Loop in the Heat

The protozoa known as "Dog vomit slime mold"  creeps along on a bed
of  Broom Moss (Dicranum) and Pixi cup lichens (Cladonia).  This is not a fungi, it's a mass of
protoplasm filled with little one celled creatures, or something like that.

Manic and barely able to sleep, I did not know if I could do this hike, but a hike was exactly what I needed. I only slept 6 hours the night before. Normally I sleep about 10 hours a night.

I started my hike at 8:15, it took me 3 hours and 15 minutes to summit.  That counts the 20 minutes I lost funneling a little trickle of water into two bottles. 

45 minutes from home, on a road that a car can handle.. Hoards of people, off leash dogs and aggro goats, water tastes like piss. It's better to climb Ellinor if you want solitude.

Trail is in great shape, no blowdowns to climb over, the crew has been up there for sure! Time up 3 hours and 15 minutes counting 20 minutes to collect water. Robert from Oly is training for Baker and did it in two hours.

How about making a trail up Copper Mountain that starts outside the park?

All water on the short route is dried up.. both streams on the long route are running. Pack lots of water up if you take the short route, unless you want to resort to extreme measures.   The water up there tastes like pee too.

I spent about 1/2 hour on the summit then I headed back down.  I took another break in the beautiful forest on the long loop.  After I sat still for a while wood peckers came and pecked on a branch over Patches head and kept dropping bark onto her, but she barely noticed as she was being eaten alive by flies.  I put some Deet on her and that helped.  It was so cool in the forest that I was able to put my light jacket on and not get bitten too much.

7 miles 3,500 feet elevation gain

Big bird nest

Spider webs catch the morning light

camp where I hung out with woodpeckers

One hour rock