Day 4
~12.6 miles
Lower tent meadow to Horseshoe Lakes

Yay! I felt better this morning!

We got on our way and finally got to the real high route, the off trail part! Admittedly, I was a bit disppointed to pick up some cairned use path shortly after the Copper Creek Trail, but it soon disappeared again and we were left on our own most of the day.

We had a few small passes to go over, all very easy walking with nice grassy ramps and granite slabs. Much of the route today was in the trees and along meadows, not my most ideal setting, especially with the hoards of mosquitoes. I’m hoping we get more above tree line with grand views of mountains as we continue along the route, though the smoke from the nearby Lions fire is kinda ruining any views just now. Hopefully the winds shift in our favor some of the time we’re out here.

We had trouble finding anywhere to take breaks that was not mosquito hell. We ended up setting up the tent in the early afternoon just to take a break in peace.

Finally, on the climb up from Horseshoe Lakes, the mosquitoes thinned and we stopped for another break around 4:30…and ended up deciding to just camp for the night. It was early, but we were very tired, and had made enough progress for the day to stay on schedule. We had a relaxing evening reading Steve Roper’s verbose guidebook for the rest of this section.

Back is still feeling pretty good. Yay drugs!