Decided not to take the tripod today because I would be in the sun all day and wouldn't have any long shutter exposures. Well, without the tripod, I hand-held the camera with a vengeance! I forgot to include my waist belt hook and so I had to hold my camera in my left hand for the entire hike instead of hanging it on my belt during the periods of disuse. Fortunately the Olympus E-M1 is very easy to hold and it really didn't present a problem.

I used my ice axe for aid. This hike starts at an elevation of about 600 feet and climbs 1,000 feet in less than a mile up to McCall Point at 1,722 feet in elevation. The first half mile of the hike up to McCall Point barely climbs at all. Round trip to the summit is 3 miles. After returning to my starting point at the car, it's 2 miles around the Rowena Plateau below McCall Point.

When I started the hike up to McCall Point at 7:20 AM, it was 34°! But the sun was on me from the beginning and so my hands never got cold, and it warmed up very fast. By the time I got back to the car it was probably pushing 60° and I put away my gloves, pullover hat, and one of my polyester long sleeve shirts.

With our unusually warm winter and spring, the Balsamroot Sunflowers were in bloom about a month earlier than usual, along with all the other species of flowers you would expect east of the Cascade Crest and before the desert. Total hiking time: 5 hours, 47 minutes, and 6 seconds. 1 hour, 40 minutes, and 9 seconds from car on the Rowena Plateau to summit at McCall Point. 36 minutes and 55.39 seconds on summit eating brunch and taking summit pictures. 1 hour, 17 minutes, and 13 seconds back to car. 17 minutes and 15.79 seconds lunch and rest break. 1 hour, 55 minutes, and 31 seconds around Rowena Plateau, not following the designated trail much at all.

Took 383 photos of which (relatively mercifully) only163 made the cut. Because I was hand-holding the camera the whole time (except for the steep descent back to the car, during which I stashed the camera in my pack), it was excessively easy to snap pictures, hence the ungodly number I took. But this is an extremely spectacular hike, especially this time of year with all the flowers, and mainly the Balsamroot Sunflowers.