Our backcountry permit stated that we would do 10.2 miles today but it felt more like 13 with the elevation gain. If the truth be known, Poia Lake was not one of my favorite campsites. The beach was not bad, but it took a couple of minutes to get there from the tent pads. The falls at the outlet were impressive, as was the view back to Redgap Pass. Mileage 10.2 Elev. + / - 2718 / 1815 Fatigue Camp Rating BIF* MEALS   Breakfast PB & J wraps Lunch PB & J wraps Dinner Chicken & Rice * Bug Irritation Factor

Since this would be a long day, we needed to get up early again. This time we both woke up at 0645 and slowly broke camp. Since we made Stoney Indian inabout 8 hours I figured we could do Redgap in about 7, so why hurry? We ate our Peanut butter and jelly tortillas and were ready to hit the trail by 0820. Mark had told me in an e-mail that “redgap was no bargain.” What I wish he had told me was that once you leave the campground you will begin climbing. Well, that’s not entirely true as we did cross the bridge over the river before starting to go vertical.

Though our packs weren’t nearly as heavy as they were for Stoney, yesterday’s added 9 miles looked to be a mistake---we were hurting a little bit. When we got to the junction of the Ptarmigan Tunnel Trail I asked Yumi if she wanted to bug out. In about 8 miles we could be back at Many Glacier getting a shower. Being the trooper she was, she insisted we keep to the original plan. We pushed on up the pass for almost two hours, gaining elevation with every step, and taking short 15 second breaks when needed. Once we cleared the tree line and started to get some views our attitudes improved. Suddenly the climb wasn’t so much work as it was gaining entry to an exclusive club.

Yumi and I on the east side of Redgap Pass. Kennedy Lake can be seen in the background.

The scenery was great. Off in the distance from across the valley we could hear the buzzing of the trail crews chainsaws. Back to our right was Elizabeth Lake, now looking like nothing more than a large pond below. To our left was Helen lake, the thin silvery Belly River and Ahern Glacier. Further left but now just below us was a small tarn that might or might not still be there in late August once all of the snowpack had melted .I took a few more pictures of this amazing scene and moved on. We saw a brave Ptarmigan and her chicks trying to cleverly hide themselves on the rocks, adding to the list of wildlife we had seen. At 1015 we took a break by the one water source handy to the trail and refilled our bladders. I decided to sit on one of the few snowfields remaining so that Yumi could get a silly picture. It felt pretty good to be on ice as the temps were creeping into the upper 70’s again. I looked up to where I thought we were going and saw the outline of two mountain goats. “It shouldn’t be much longer” I thought to myself. An hour later we had reached the pass.

We pulled out our nearly depleted food bag and ate some more PB & J tortillas. I decided to break open the rest of the bacon and added some mayo. All that was missing was a tomato and some lettuce. While I was gorging myself, Yumi was busy working her cell phone trying to get a message to her kids in Massachusetts. She managed to leave a message with her ex-father in laws office.

When Yumi did decide to eat she was almost immediately visited by a Bighorn sheep. By now she was used to animals invading her personal space and let it go. We took a few more minutes to admire the view then started down the pass. Only a few minutes had gone by when we met up with a young couple on their way up. They would be staying at Elizabeth Lake themselves that night. Just married in June, they were spending their honeymoon/summer backpacking in the Rockies. It looked like she was the expert of the pair as she was hiking in Teva's and was carrying the tent. We talked for about 5 minutes, took pictures of each other with Kennedy Lake in the background and moved on.

This downhill was a little more severe than the one at Stoney so our feet and toes were really starting to ache much sooner than we expected. We took a short break at 1300 then started down again. We passed the stream that had taken a hiker’s life the previous summer. It didn’t look any more slippery than the hundreds of other streams we had seen, but there was a new bridge built there so it must have been hazardous.

Our campsite at Poia Lake

Other than Kennedy Lake and Kennedy Creek on the far side of the valley, this area seemed to be drier than any other part of the park we had seen. Trees were having troubles growing here and a good many were dead. We would later find out that this was due to Chinook winds blowing off the Pacific. Essentially, the warm winds n February and march tricked the trees into thinking it was spring. Somehow this messed them up and killed them. It also explained the unseasonably warm temps in the park I was tracking all winter on weather.com.

At 1400 we needed to take another break and pumped some water from the creek. By now we were hiking through the forest so the heat wasn’t quite so bad. The cool water of the creek was refreshing and just what we needed to get us down the trail again. We met a young woman who was doing the entire Poia loop in one day. Judging by her progress I figured she’d make it by about 1900 that night. She told us we had about an hour to get to the lake and to watch out for bears as there had been a lot of activity there the last few days.

The last hour was miserably hot and dry. Scrub brush and bleached out stumps littered the landscape. True to the dayhiker’s word, we reached Poia lake in just over an hour. We were met there by an interesting looking fellow carrying a armful of guidebooks. “Looks like a professor or something” I thought to myself. He introduced himself as Bill Allen, and as we would later find out was indeed a professor of Economics at Indiana University. Bill showed us around the campground and then left to identify more plants and animals. As he left it struck me that he looked an awful lot like Indiana Jones.

As had become our custom, we set up camp and almost immediately started napping. Such beautiful afternoon to be held captive by insects and exhaustion. As usual the skeeters and flies lulled us to sleep with their buzzing from just behind the mesh screen of the tent. Too bad, suckers...no meal for you just yet. Check us later.

Reluctantly, it was time to get up around 1700 to make some dinner. I had to pump some water so I suggested that Yumi come with me and we could check out the falls before eating. We didn’t get the best look at the falls because that would have meant walking extra, so we took what we could get with a minimum of effort.

We had run out of “fresh” food at Cosley so were now stuck eating Mountain House Sweet and Sour Pork and our pudding. We yacked with Dr. Allen until 2000 when the bugs again forced us into the tent for the night. Here I went though my trip log and added details while they were still fresh in my mind. We also tried to plan our next 2.5 days in the park. I knew only one thing: A hot shower was the plan for tomorrow. With that thought came the realization that our time in the backcountry was nearly over and that our vacation was going way too fast. I actualy felt a little sad as I drifted off to sleep.