It just keeps getting better...

Not a bad place to wake up in the morning :) And it was warmish! So not what I expected. Freezing cold desert nights and chilly days, and now we are sleeping at 11,000 feet and it gets chilly but warms up quickly. I'm glad to have started when I did though, because temps in the desert now are in the 100's.

No thank you!

Came to our first stream crossing and it wasn't too high at all. That's another reason we started when we did. As more and more snow melts, the crossings become more challenging. 

I took off my socks and pulled the inserts out of my shoes and just went across with my shoes on. They dry out quickly on their own.

Right after the crossing was this meadow and lucky for us, it was lunch time.

Incredible spot to dry out shoes and stretch out in the sun for a bit.

And after that, came a butt-kicking climb. Not that long, but steep and with the altitude factored in.... It was hard!

Late afternoon came to this idyllic meadow. There were deer grazing in the middle and marmots darting around. ( I love marmots. I think they're adorable. )

Nedi and Colia (aka the Germans-that's what they refer to themselves as) were camped right on the other side of rock creek by this meadow. 

We briefly considered camping there as well, but with Whitney in our future tomorrow, we hiked an extra few miles to the Crabtree Ranger Station to camp. 

This puts us 7.3 miles from the summit of Whitney. Lots of folks camped here tonight.

Some who did Whitney today and some (like us) that are doing it tomorrow. Good to here the tales of the trail from those that have done it. Our plan is to be hiking by 4 am. It gets light before 5. That way we can get up before noon hopefully and back down before the snow gets too soft and we end up postholing. That is exhausting. We will leave our tents set up here in the meadow for when we get back tomorrow, so we will only be carrying water and snacks up with us. 

We ran into a group of good kids we'd been leapfrogging with but hadn't seen in about a week.

Clawhammer, Matt, Siri and Old School. ( so named because she carries an old camera with actual film!)

Early to bed tonight. Big day tomorrow!