We camped low last night, at the bottom of the climb to Mather Pass. The day started gently, then went steeply uphill until we reached 10,000 feet. There terrain leveled out and we followed the water as we gradually moved up, again passing lake after lake. Eventually the vegetation disappeared and we again climbed steeply uphill over rocky switchbacks and finally reached Mather Pass (12,093). Nothing but rocks, it felt like we were on the moon.
We dropped back down to 10,000 feet before starting the climb up to the next pass. The terrain was beautiful, the views were beautiful. We are camped at Lake Marjorie (11,168) with just 1.5 miles to the next pass. We hiked 21.9 miles today, and we have 20.2 miles left until we finish this trail.
