As planned, we got an early start out of Lake Edison so we could get up and over Bear Ridge before the day heated up. As it turned out the climb wasn’t bad at all – we took it slow and steady and before we knew it, we were at the top. These steep 2000 ft gains get a bit easier after a week on the trail. The trail was well graded and it was even shaded – I now have no doubt that the horror stories we had heard were exaggerated, much like the tales of the climb out of Red’s Meadow.
As we descended off of Bear Ridge there wasn’t as much shade, so the downhill was worse. Eventually the trail met Bear Creek and we had several miles of easy, gently climbing trail. The day was hot so I was keeping an eye out for a good place to soak my feet and dunk my head. A perfect swimming hole appeared mere feet from the trail, so I knew I must stop. We spent about an hour soaking and relaxing before continuing on.
The last few miles seemed to take forever. The scenery was beautiful, but it was still hot and a bit dusty. Our 3500 foot, 13 mile day caught up with us in the last mile or so and we were very grateful to reach camp at Rosemarie Meadow. Unfortunately the campsite was incredibly dusty, but we didn’t feel like wandering around, looking for a better place.
This day’s stats:
- Mileage: 12.25 mi
- Ascending: 3491 ft
- Descending: 1106 ft
- Cumulative Mileage: 80.03 mi
- Cumulative Ascending: 14,654 ft (Whitney!)
- Cumulative Descending: 13,238 ft
