Yet, another day of climbing. This time, across a high plateau, beside lush alpine meadows. Before starting the trip, I'd planned to camp below Pinchot Pass (12,130') and tackle it first thing the following day, but my energy was good, and I was ahead of schedule, so I climbed it at midday. What a spectacular view! Too bad a bashed my knee running around to get in the picture.

On the other side, the trail drops into a small valley at 11,000 feet with many small, picturesque shallow lakes. It was during this downhill that my feet (especially the toes) really began to feel the boot problem. Still, it wasn't yet a major problem. That would soon change.

I set up camp next to one of the shallow lakes, crystal clear and only about 3 feet deep at the middle. Each night I tried to have dinner ready by 6:30, the goal being to eat dinner before the mosquitos ate me! The drawback to this is that you end up in the sack by 7:00 PM, a tad early for bedtime... so an after-dinner walk is usually called for. I found some very interesting terrain on those walks.