Rockwall - Day 3 of 5

date: August 6, 2010
itinerary: Numa Creek to Tumbling Creek
trail: 7.9 kms, altitude gain 2,248', descent 1,050'
weather: high teens, mostly cloudy, rain off and on during evening and nightThe ubiquitous Indian Paintbrush Flower

This morning would turn out to be a brutal climb as well. Though it was spread out more than the climb on day 1, coming in at 2,220 feet in 5.3 kms, it was through very dewy and dense short growth, with no air movement. It felt more like you were hiking in the tropics, complete with the requisite embarrassing level of perspiration. But we eventiually broke past the tree line once again, and I could have climbed indefinitely at that point...well, not really, because the last 1000 feet of scree slope switch backs were even steeper.This is when we finally broke the tree (a.k.a. rain forest) line, looking back at the valley from where we came.From there we got to linger towards Tumbling Pass, which reached 7,251', where we stopped to have lunch. It was starting to cloud over at that point, and the winds alway pick up at the ridge lines, so it was getting a little cool.
However, we did finally manage to spot some wildlife (aside from the porcupine that showed up at camp the night before). On the slope face across the valley from us, next to Tumbling Glacier, we spied a mountain goat. It was so far away that even with binoculars we couldn't tell if it was a billy or not, but we could see it moseying around. Can you pick it out in the photo below?It is just below and to the right of the small snow patch in the middle of the imageTumbling glacier

From there we descended back into the valley once again, with a very gentle descent, towards Tumbling Creek campground. Presumably the glacier feeds the creek, and just before you get to the campground, a bridge takes you over a small canyon. It wasn't until we got back to our vehicle a few days later that we discovered if we had traveled 0.3 kms down a side trail we ignored, we could have seen this canyon creek/river go over a 300' waterfall. Oops!Tumbling Creek is kind of a lame-o campground, made only more boring and annoying by the rain that started to come. We timed it "perfect" that we wound up eating supper during the rain, and snoozing in the tent when it was sunny. Just a bit of an off day all around I guess. That weather system never left us alone for the rest of the trip, and though it didn't rain a whole bunch, the threat was always there, and we did get wet a few times.Gary did manage to snap a snazzy artistic shot of a Nalgene bottle. It is amazing how much water becomes a focus of your life, when you have to filter everything you drink cold, and you only carry a couple of one-litre bottles with you during high levels of activity. My tip of the day...juice crystals...especially the single portion servings of energy drink that you can buy. Mmmmm, electrolytes.The other focus was blister control. Here, Luke and I are prepping our heels in the morning with moleskin and medical tape. Once you get going, though, the adrenalin seems to numb the discomfort.