Day 10 – 7/10/18
~15 miles
Wahoo Lakes to Brown Bear Lake

Great news! Dan is no longer presenting any symptoms suspicious of giardia! We think he was just regular high-route exhausted and regular thru-hiker farty.

Finally past the talus of Wahoo lakes, we had a few miles across the wide open plains of Humphreys Basin. On the way up Puppet Pass, we saw (and heard) a group of 6. Where did they come from?? They were a group of older Canadian couples out doing this section of the high route from Bishop Pass to Mammoth – and taking 2 weeks to do it!!! And here I thought the 7 days of food we were carrying for this leg was too heavy. Then we learned they were down to their last jelly beans and meeting horse packers later today for a resupply. That’s the way to do it!

We dropped way down to a creek, where there was actual trail for one mile. We a long lunch break. Setting up the tent as refuge from the mosquitoes for a long lunch break has become our routine, but unfortunately the shade always seems to move within 10 minutes of setting up the tent and it ends of being a sauna.

The afternoon was a hot and steep climb up to Merriam lake then on to Feather Pass. I liked Feather Pass, it was pretty and more importantly, marked a break from the mosquitoes! Also all the Lakes with bear themed names below the pass are very pretty.

I even went for a swim in Bear Paw lake. “Swim” is really a generous term. It’s much more like a quick jump in and then shrieking while trying to get out as fast as possible because the water is frigid snowmelt.

Steve Roper remarked that the view overlooking Big Bear Lake as we climbed toward the next pass was “unmatched” on the high route. The lighting was terrible for photos, so I know it’s hard to understand, but I agree with Steve on this one. It would’ve been a lovely place to camp, too, but we kept hiking anyway, til almost 7pm, and got another pass and 15 miles done for the day.