Now that the Octopus Lake Bridge had been fixed, I could hike up the trail towards Fish Lake.  I used to do this once a month at the beginning of my time at Nuk Tessli, when I had few planes in here and had to walk out for my mail.  The trail ends at the treeline: most of the hike to the road is unmarked.  My destination was off the route, an insignificant bump on the right, half hidden in mist, as seen that morning from my cabin window.

There was a frost that morning and the canoe and dock was slick with ice.  The forecast was for sunshine but the fog lay in slabs across Mt Monarch.

By the time I reached Octopus Lake, the sun had warmed up the bugs.  That is Flattop Mountain behind.

I crossed the newly-repaired bridge and about 40 minutes later reached Round Lake (named by the ex-trapper.)  Wilderness Mountain is dominant here.

Once again, the subalpine meadows were lush and full of colour.  The false hellibore was already turning yellow.  It made a lovely foil for the paintbrushes….

…. and the purple mountain daisies.

It is quite a long walk to get above the treeline.  Round lake is on the left and Octopus Lake is sprawling in the middle distance.  Wilderness Lake is on the upper far left.  Flattop Mt dominates the middle, Monarch is on the far right.

The flower meadows were very disappointing.  Very little seemed to have happened there at all.  It looked almost desert-like in its sparseness.  Here is a natural bonsai pine in front of Mt Monarch.