Back from the Sierras

[nolanr]

Did a 4 day, 3 night trip w/ my bro. Entered near Bishop, went thru the Dusy Basin (stunning, kinda like the Enchantments), down to the PCT, north thru Evolution Basin, up Darwin Canyon, over a col, and back where we started, more or less. Had to do a little thumbing for rides and some extra walking. Each day but the last went over a pass near 12,000', the last one was almost 13,000'. The altitude kicked my ass, by the end of the trip I was dragging. Barely dropped below 9,000' the whole time, spent 2 nights at 11,000'+. If you run up and down Rainier that's nothing, but I don't climb volcanoes much and rarely get above 8 or 9 K. Anyway, great trip, good to be back, heard I missed the torrential downpours. On the flight in Baker looked very white, did we get some fresh snow w/ the wet weather pattern?

PS-Dude, it's hot down there. The sun is merciless when the wind isn't blowing to cool you down. I did 'ya all proud and went skinny dipping twice. And their marmots are wussy, they're about 1/3 the size of a good hoary marmot and they don't even know how to whistle. And the pikas are picky, they only inhabit lakefront property. Speaking of which, I don't know how there's so many lakes up in the High Sierra, there's barely any snow left, a few hanging glaciers on north slopes, yet there's lakes and streams everywhere.