Day 11: Marjorie Lake to Charlotte Lake- 21 Miles

Up at 6 and were on the trail by 6:30. 

Grumpy Mark is grumpy

We were eager to start this morning and finished Pinchot Pass within an hour of being on trail. 

One pass down, one to go

Decended down towards Twin Lakes, and in the afternoon crossed an awesome suspension bridge. After crossing the bridge we started the climb up to Rae Lakes, so we had to gain back all the elevation we lost in the morning coming down off of Pinchot.

Dad was pretty dehydrated and having a hard time keeping up so Nick and I took all of the crew gear out of his pack and force fed him gatorade and water. About 30 minutes later he was feeling good again. He let us carry his crew gear for the rest of the day though. We made it to Rae Lakes mid-afternoon and ate a 2nd lunch at the base of the last 2 mile climb up to Glen Pass. Hands down Rae Lakes is the prettiest country we've seen all trip, we debated camping there and enjoying the scenery but it was too early in the day. We trudged up the muddy switchbacks and then down into the Kearsarge Basin. We made a new friend, Terry, at the top of of the pass and he hiked with us for the rest of the day. He is a solo hiker also doing the JMT and is about my Dads age. 

It started sprinkling on us as we descended. We finally set up camp, Nick and my feet are pretty badly blistered. We are hiking in Merrell trail runners, which work great until you put more than about 40lbs on your back. We both got blisters in strange places every time that happened. We ate a big dinner, I had Beef Stroganoff with Razzberry Crumble for dessert. Yummy. Forester Pass is the last pass left before Whitney, looking forward to knocking it out tomorrow.

I want to warn you about that dinner so badly. Yet tragically, I cannot