No Perches Necessary

Finally - stepping off the gound and onto one of these big rocks. Its been tough staring at them for the whole crest trail hike and not being able to play on them. This is just a little taste, but it feels good to be off the ground. About half way up it looked like it might storm a bit, but blew over quick and didn't get the rock wet. And lucky that it didn't because we saw a pair of osprey(?) that had a pika or something caught that was making some horrible screeching sounds. The top of the route was a perfect vantage point to watch the birds trying to carry off their prey while it was doing its best to get away. At one point it either managed to wiggle loose or the bird was tired of fighting it because the prey got dropped and then snatched out of mid-air. The osprey were eventually able to haul their catch home and we had to rappell back to the trail and head home for our dinner.