A "Perchy" weekend

I pulled into the lodge around 4:00 and found Wes waiting at the boat dock. I dumped off my pack, drove my car back down to the hiker's parking lot and hoofed it back to the dock as quickly as I could. I had a late start and really wanted some evening light for photos and we were planning on staying for two nights so we hoped to catch some lingering daylight in time to get camp setup. Cory and Kevin were coming in on their own schedules and we hoped they'd both get there before the last shuttle boat ran at 7:00 PM. Kevin had never been up to the Perch before and a missed shuttle ride would add 5 more miles of trail hiking with headlamps to the approach. I have been up here at least a dozen times but for some reason I always forget about how stout the approach is with a loaded pack. The logs at the creek crossing must have been put in by some young slack-liners who like a soft rope. There are around 4 long, but small diameter lodgepole over a 20' gap and another one that didn't seem to have any real purpose other than to serve as a foot snare. I don't think this bouncing contraption of a bridge is going to survive next year's run-off for a minute. Back in the day, this crossing issue would have been solved quickly with a double-bladed ax and some stout rope. At any rate, we both managed to bounce our way across without mishap and up the hill we went.

We made it to the luxurious climber's biv site just above the first lake around 7:00 and had plenty of time to get settled into our tent before dark. We quickly pumped water, fired up the stove, had a good hot dinner and found that we could keep the temp around a comfy 70 degrees in the tent with the stove running on low. (Heck with the carbon footprint, it's freezing arse cold up here tonight in Stanley). We ate, turned on the digital tunes and stretched out in our double-down beds and told stories until around 9:30 PM when we heard two voices outside of the tent. Kevin and Cory managed to meet up at the lodge and were able to headlamp up together. Kevin had never done this approach before so we were relieved he didn't have to do it alone, in the dark for the first time. Our new visitors' first priority was was a hot meal and lots of liquids and no time was wasted in getting that taken care of. We kept the heat and music rolling along with a lot of stories (that were all 100% true) until around midnight when we all finally bonked out. No one was planning on climbing until the sun got around to the west side so morning was quite a casual affair.

Saturday morning started real cold but before long the day turned into one of those "bluebird" Idaho, Indian Summer afternoons and the climbing action warmed up as quickly as the weather.