Day 4

16 miles
The start of our day was spent navigating more blowdown. Three hikers heading SOBO passed us almost as soon as we had started walking. We exchanged info about what trail conditions to expect for each other and then carried on. They said more snow patches to traverse and we said more blowdowns. They were right, and we spent a fair amount of time walking on snow throughout the day. Our first water source was Rockpile Lake, and we hung out there for awhile. We both got in to rinse off and cool down. Another hiker, Storytime (Storyteller?), joined us for most of that time. She is an outdoor guide for teens, ski instructor, generally a bad ass. She gave us cookies since she had too much food and was getting off trail in a few days. We also have too much food, but accepted the cookies since they were homemade from her mom. We told her how we were passed by Bag Bowl yesterday and she got excited. They had hiked together in SoCal and she was going to try to catch up to him even though he’s an extremely fast hiker. We all eventually packed up and started wandering through half-trail/half-snow. And some blowdowns thrown in for fun. If you’re not climbing over a tree, you’re trying to kick steps and maintain footing over snow patches. We stopped for a late lunch at Shale Lake where there were some weekenders enjoying the permit-required spots near the lake. One guy hung a bear bag, which got us talking about our storage technique, which is to just sleep with it. With some food and water put down, we cruised through the last 5 miles, mostly downhill, to our campsite near Milk Creek. I don’t have hiker hunger yet, so I had to force myself to eat even a few things. I have way too much food at this point. A climb awaits us in the morning so hoping for a good night of sleep.