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Aug 19 -- Monkey goes on a diet -- Triumphant over Mono Pass -- finis

In the morning it was quite chilly, and we found all our water bottles had frozen into some amazingly intricate ice crystals. I made a chocolate shake for breakfast. I was not in a rush to get out of here so I told everyone to head out and I'd catch up. That didn't turn out to be true until Tom's Place. I had eaten almost all my food and burned up all my white gas by now so my pack was lighter. One of the supplies I still had left was toilet paper; I wasn't ready for the Jardine approach whereby he recommends saving the weight of a roll of TP by gathering "natural TP" consisting of snow, smooth rocks, small twigs, and douglas fir cones. Youch!

I headed the up the trail on a beautiful sunny morning and soon saw many beautiful wildflowers along the stream. I kept seeing superb streamside panoramas but did not stop to shoot them. The first spot where I stopped to snack and filter water had many twin berries, and the first of many day hikers heading west cruised on by. There were several side trails that were not marked and I guessed the right direction on each one. The trial started heading up out of the valley and flattened briefly in this lush meadow. As I shot this I was trying to figure out which way the trail went from the gaps in the vegetation but couldn't see where.

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It turned out the trail headed up a steep hill dead ahead and I ran into two packtrains. I had to wait about ten minutes because they were all backed up, so I talked to a pack train dude for awhile. He told me where to expect water up ahead. The theory about these packtrain guys was not holding up. After they left I went a little bit further and spotted an excellent viewpoint of the now incredible scenery, including one of the lakes in Pioneer Basin.

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I was now calculating how many scenes I could shoot with the remaining film. It was going to be close; I should have kept all my film. A little bit later I climbed up into a beautiful alpine meadow where there was a cluster of guys talking about sports under a tree. There were many day- and overnight hikers along this stretch. I continued above the end of this flat area and found a big rock to stand on to shoot this panorama, which shows a small lake at the upper end of the second meadow.

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I was puzzled which way the trail went from here as there was an incredible rock face to the right. However the trail zigzagged up and to the left, where it came to a bigger lake with many pitched tents and some sort of brick building. I definitely wanted to shoot this lake but couldn't tell where the best spot was so I kept on going. The trail ascended through a thinning forest of smaller and smaller trees and came out on a ridge top with an excellent view of the lake I just left and everything else in the area. I shot this in a very gusty wind. In between some of the twelve shots I had to wait a few minutes for the wind to calm down so I could press the shutter while keeping the camera level.

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From here there were no trees to speak of and a huge uphill stretch. It was a tremendous slog and I alternated between being hot in the high-altitude sun and freezing in the cold blasts of 12,000 feet wind. The view kept getting better and better. The trail reached a draw of some sort and I climbed off the path to a small rise where there was an even more incredible view so I shot this hand held in a very strong wind:

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I now entered a complete moonscape of different colored rocks with some traces of running water. I remember thinking why they couldn't build a trail that stayed flat--it descended into a rock pit only to climb back up again. This last climb looked harder than all the previous ones. I did run into a guy who recognize me from David's description and told me they were pretty far ahead, but the pass was just a short distance ahead. The place was really a surreal landscape, and I set up to shoot at the near end after eating some celebratory snacks. There was a beautiful lake in the middle of the past and two people sitting on the edge of the lake. It felt like another world.

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I walked by them and filtered some water of this lake. The other end of the pass will revealed an amazing view of snow clad peaks and the east side of the Sierra. I climbed up above the regular trail and shot another panorama:

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Descending down from Mono Pass was such a relief... someone had said it was all downhill from here. Well not really. The trail came to one steep section and back up I went. I soon came to a knoll with an incredible view of the Mt. Mills/Mt. Abbot/Mt. Dade mountains and I setup my last pano as I had no more rolls of film.

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I realized somewhere along here that my small worn out green stuffbag of important hiking items like compass, whistle, flashlight, Swiss knife, and Potable Aqua was no longer with me, and I felt a pang of loss because the bag and its contents had developed an almost superstitious charm for me over the last ten years. I thought it fell out in Mono Pass, but actually it was buried in my pack. I then hurried along to catch up with my companions. I must have gotten down to the parking lot in record time, for I passed just about everyone going my way. At my car, a note: we've gone for drinks at Tom's Place. Luckily my car starts up first time. I'm dead tired. I take it easy driving down to Tom's Place. Tom's Place is very busy. After showers, we have a great evening relaxing over dinner at Tom's Place restaurant.