Near a meadow

I stayed warm and dry in my tent last night. I was smart enough to have brought my bivy sack, which is waterproof on the bottom and not waterproof on the top. It helped keep me a little warmer and protected my bag from touching the wet walls.

My tent was not dry at all. It was soaked completely except for the floor. I packed it up wet and hoped I'd see some sunshine to dry it out later.

I passed a big group of people early in the morning. They had a little sun in their spot so I sat and ate breakfast with them and then I was going to try to dry m y tent, but the sun was too weak and it was soon hidden by a cloud. So I went on.

After a while of climbing, I came to a perfect flat rock in the sun. I unfurled my tent over the rock to dry in the sun. Instantly clouds arose from nowhere and blocked out the sun. I packed up again and moved on.

I passed a spot where I remembered I had found a knife stuck in a log. I looked and within a minute I saw the knife still stuck there in the log.

I felt tired today and I had a slight stomach ache. The climbing seemed tiring. I went over 10,000 feet today.

Clouds continued to form, but there was no rain in the morning. I spent much of the morning walking in the snow and in the iced-over footprints of others.

It started to hail around noon. It hailed off and on throughout the day. I leapfrogged with the group from my breakfast in the morning during the day. The only one in the group whose name I remembered was Scholar. I also saw Matt and another guy from Kennedy Meadows throughout the day.

I kept thinking how if I'm going to cross a stream thigh high, I would really rather it be warm and sunny, not stormy and cold. I was glad to be going to Lone Pine soon. I would check in to the hostel and wait until the weather improves.

Toward the end of the day I considered camping in Diaz Creek where I didn't camp last year. I saw where I camped at the turn-off. I went down to the creek, but it seemed cold, misty and damp, so I went back up to the trail and went on, thinking I might as well just go to Horseshoe Meadow.

It started raining again. Just sprinkles this time, but you can never be sure what you're going to get. I saw the group setting up camp by a meadow. I decided to join them. I got my tent up in the sprinkles and noticed my sleeping bag was damp. I hoped I would be warm.

I wore my rain pants all day and then I wore them to bed. It turned out I slept very warmly and had to take off a layer. It didn't rain during the night. The weather appeared to be improving.