Skyline Trail,  Olympic National Park,  Jul 12, 2005 - Jul 16, 2005     page 8 / 52

We intended to spend night two at Lake Beauty, but had spent the first night about two miles shy of our initial goal. This would be a long, tough day to get all the way to Lake Beauty.

We had some breakfast and began packing our gear. Shortly before hitting the trail, a young couple strolled through our camp from the Elip Creek area. They gave us trail conditions, as well as information about a large group hiking ahead of us. The information we obtained from them seemed to suggest that we might need to camp somewhere prior to reaching Lake Beauty. This was not a problem. We had enough food to be out seven days.

We resumed our hike around 9:00AM. The south end of the Skyline Trail begins at Three Lakes. It starts climbing in forest, but soon climbs into a series of meadows dotted with tarns and wildflowers. As we hiked the overcast lingered.