Mount Pugh – Leor Pantilat's Adventures

I forgot to mention yesterday that I had my last day at my internship at the Federal Trade Commission. I had an awesome experience working there for ten weeks and all the people were wonderful. I got to work on wide array of important cases in litigation and gained valuable knowledge in the process. The work was interesting and enjoyable. The attorneys, interns, and me all went out a great lunch yesterday; the food and conversation were great. Thanks for the great internship!

Today I hiked and scrambled up Mount Pugh along the Mountain Loop Highway. It was a great workout with 5,500 feet of elevation gain. The hike starts at around 1,800 feet. I hiked very fast up the switchbacks for 4 miles to a high pass at 5,720 feet and then continued on the path and scramble route up to the 7,224 foot summit, reaching the high point 1 hour and 55 minutes after departing the car. Some marine air made the temperatures very comfortable and I rested on the summit for a long time, getting a nice tan in the process. The views were great and the wildflowers were excellent. This year is really a blockbuster for wildflowers – they have been amazing over the past few weeks. I took photos on the way down and then cruised through the forest, where the cushy trail absorbed the shock and allowed me to jog back to the trailhead, 1 hour and 30 minutes after leaving the summit. It was a great day trip and I enjoyed the weekday solitude; I only saw a couple other guys as I approached the car on the decent who were only heading to a small lake at 3,100 ft. I will have photos tomorrow of the Mount Pugh trip, but in the mean time, check out these panoramas from the Mount Logan trip: