July 24, 2011 Lake 12,400 to just under Mt. Tyndall

Sunday nights camp right under Tyndall with Williamson all red in background. Stream along trail side between John Muir Trail and Shepherd Pass. View below Forester Pass looking South before we headed off trail to Shepherd Pass area. This is listed on the map as a "swamp area" but due to this years snow amount, is now a lake. View looking West from Sunday nights camp showing all the smoke from the fire that got Warren not feeling too good. Very steep South Side of Forester Pass. Yours truly on top of Forester Pass. Last stretch heading up the North side of Forester Pass. Warren about a third of the way between Lake 12,400 and Forester Pass. Fantastic cascade a few miles below South side of Forester. Picture does not do justice. After spending Saturday night at a fantastic camp site at Lake 12,440 , where we enjoyed the best star gazing of the entire trip, we headed up over Forester Pass early Sunday morning. We were in MUCH better shape than the night before, and figured it shouldn't take all that long to hit the top. After gaining the ridge and hitting the slope that was entirely snow covered that lead over to the pass, we just kept pitting one foot in front of the other and made it in under 2 hours. Maybe even closer to an hour and a half, don't remember for sure. The view from the summit was as beautiful as expected, and we were lucky that smoke from the fire was not effecting the view that early in the day. Cool thing about the stretch from Lake 12,400 to the top of the pass were these really pretty purple flowers that grew in little gardens at different areas right along side of the trail. There would be none and then you would come upon groups of them all over the hill side for a short distance, and then they would be gone again, only to appear higher up the trail. Very cool. Once over the pass the trail dropped down the very steep wall, getting cut out of sheer up and down granite. We lost the trail when it reentered the snow, and had to do some dicey steps getting down some step, hard pack. We passed close to 2 guys we had seen go over the pass just before darkness the night before. Their tent was set up in an area that was hard to see how they got it to stay. Once we got a little lower and back on the trail, they passed us by, stopping to talk for a little while, telling us they had been out almost 3 weeks already, and headed over to Lake South America to do some fishing. Trippy guys, one stoner Brad Pitt wannabe and one nice guy. Actually they were both nice, just suffering from being out for too long with out seeing lots of people. We also got passed by a group of 3 Muir Trail hikers. They were a mix of unusual if there ever was one. Anyway, a couple miles down the trail we came upon this really cool cascade coming down the hillside that was one of the highlights of the trip. It was maybe a couple hundred feet high and Warren said it it had been located in Orange County, there would have been a park built around it. Took some pics, but of course they did not do it justice. Do not know why, but didn't think of videoing it. We spent a good hour or so taking a break nest to it before heading on. Not much later we decided to save some miles and elevation loss and gain by heading cross country East towards Shepherd Pass. Was a good thing we did. Saved lots of time and energy, plus we saw lots to country we would have missed by staying to the trail. After regaining the trail coming down from Shepherd, we headed up to just under Tyndall looking for a camp site. By this time the smoke was very heavy and Warren was not feeling well at all. The view to the West reminded me of smoggy Los Angeles back when I was in elementry school. Guess it was effecting his breathing just like an old fashion smog attack. After searching around for a site to spend the night that was both flat enough and close to water, we finally agreed on one and got setup for the evening. Warren was really feeling bad by this time and I don't think he even had anything to eat for dinner. Watched some stars as it got dark, but mainly went to sleep earlier than last night. Long day, very tiring .