Weather:  Few clouds, cool temperature.
Present were:  Gordon, K7HFV;  Clint, KA7OEI;  Tim, KK7EF;  Ron, K7RJ;  Dale, WJ7L
Destination:  To Circle-All peak.  (Up Butler Fork to the ridge at the top of Mill A Basin and south along the ridge to the peak.)
Question of the day:  "Because the plural of goose is geese, would the plural of grouse be grease?"  After having seen a cow moose just off the trail on the way up, we startled (and were startled by) a wild grouse in the trail on the way up and another on the way down.  Because there was more than one bird, this question came up.
Total distance:  Approx. 2.98 miles
Times:  Depart Vehicle:  1837;  Pass mining prospects:  1847;  Branch in trail (Butler/Mill A Basin):  1856;   Top of ridge/Depart from trail to Mill A Basin:  1936;  Arrive at peak:  1939;  Gordon arrives at peak:  1948;  Depart peak:  2002;  Return to Butler/Mill A branch:  2032;  Pass prospect again:  2039;  Return to vehicle:  2046
Altitudes in feet ASL (approx):  Parking:  7100;  Prospect:  7380;  Butler/Mill A branch:  7575;  Top of ridge:  8586;  Top of Circle All Peak:  8675  (USGS says 8707)
Elevation gain/loss (approx):  1575, according to my GPS, 1607 according to USGS.
Local sunset on this date:  7:48 pm (11 minutes lost over the past week - about the same as last week because we are nearly at the equinox.)

Images (125-1800k each, .JPG):

• IMG01372 - Ron and Dale, on the trail up.  #1373 shows Dale shooting back with his camera.
• IMG01375 - Straight up the canyon.  Clayton Peak is dead center. #1377 is the same, but wider view.
• IMG01378 - A spot of sunlight on the ridge between Butler Fork and Mill A Basin. (I wanted a better, less-cluttered view, but couldn't find one on the trail.)
• IMG01380 - Ron, atop Circle-All Peak with the last remnant of sunset on Kessler Peak.
• IMG01382 - The last vestiges of light on the ridge between Butler Fork and Dog Lake.
• IMG01383 - Tim, taking a GPS reading on the peak.
• IMG01384h - The last bits of sunlight on some of the peaks/ridges up the canyon.  See also #1385h and #1386h.
• IMG01387 - The very last spot of alpenglow illuminating Clayton Peak.
• IMG01388 - More glow on the ridge between Butler Fork and Mill A Basin.  Similar is #1389.
• IMG01391h - The group (sans photographer) atop the peak.
• IMG01392h - Mt. Raymond with bare branches in foreground.
• IMG01393h - Clint, atop the peak.

• GPS track of the hike - The recorded GPS track of the hike.
• Elevation profile of the hike - The elevation profile of the hike.  The left side of the profile is truncated due to the lack of a good 3D lock with the GPS receiver for the first portion of the hike, hence no elevation data.
• A more detailed GPS track - A more-detailed map with the GPS track of the hike plus the surrounding landmarks.

Notes:

Even though Circle-All peak isn't particularly high (only 8700 feet or so) it commands a spectacular view both up and down the canyon.  A combination of it being at the terminal moraine (where the canyon changes from heading northeast to southeast) and it's jutting out to the south allows a great view in both directions.

With the ever-earlier sunsets, the hikes are getting shorter and shorter.  With the earlier sunset, the opportunity to take photographs also diminishes.  As can be seen from the numbering of the images, many more were taken than were posted.

• If you want one (or more) of these images and wish some sort of adjustment (color, brightness, exposure, etc.) please let me know:  All of these image have been processed in some way.
• These images are 125-1800k in size, .JPG and are in chronological order.
• No-one ever said that all of these images (or any of them) were good.  Some of them may have definite focus/exposure "issues."
• EXIF data is present for most of the images, showing time, date, and precise exposure conditions.  Recent versions of Irfanview will show this in the "View->Image Information->EXIF" tab.  Note that cropping/noise reduction required the use of another program which may have removed some/most of this EXIF data.
• Images suffixed with "h" are half-size.  This was done for images that were somewhat out of focus (due to misfocus or camera movement associated with long shutter times) or those that required some extra noise reduction and thus lost some detail anyway.
• All images taken using a Sigma SD-10 camera using the 18-50mm zoom lens.

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