Day 4- Incoming Storm- Pass Mountain Hut to Bird's Nest 3 Hut

3/16/14- Incoming Storm- Pass Mountain Hut to Bird's Nest 3 Hut

Multiple deer walked right through this area in the middle of the night while we were in the hut. The sound of large animals crunching around in the woods at night is always a bit disconcerting given the number of bears in the park. 

Pass Mountain Hut

The Thorton Gap (Panorama) Bathrooms. Running hot water, flush toilets and power outlets. It's the closest you'll get to a Hilton in SNP during the winter. I love this bathroom. I took a "bath" in the sink, charged my phone and washed and dried my socks. It was hard to leave, but Mary's Rock loomed just behind us and we had to climb it before the next Hut. 

On top of Mary's Rock. Wow...biggest climb of the trip so far. 

We decided to take a little shortcut to try to catch a spring on the way to the next hut. Due to my lack of good maps, I completely guessed wrong on the location of the spring relative to the shelter. We ended up on Skyline Drive walking south, but I suspected there would be a fire road up to the hut. Just as the storm started to blow in, we found the fire road and started climbing to the hut. 

Wind and snow blowing, a big storm coming, and someone had left a large quantity of firewood piled inside the hut. Thank you! Our first hut with a fireplace just happened to be our location when a big storm started to blow in.