Morning views of the peaks south of Woods Lake. The fourth day in a row of morning clouds warned of more unsettled weather.

The colourful Crater Mountain above tarns on the descent from Pinchot Pass.

We found some sort of rabbit hopping around just off the trail.

Views down Woods Creek. The descent south of Pinchot Pass is a tough one. It’s long, and the terrain, especially below the Sawmill Pass trail junction, is pretty rocky.

Some shots of the famous Woods Creek suspension bridge. There were a few ranger-drawn signs in this area directing people where to camp and poop, a sure sign of overuse.

The view north to Window and Pyramid Peaks.

By mid day we reached the Rae Lakes area. Here’s the classic shot of Fin Dome rising above the outlet of Arrowhead Lake, with some of the higher peaks just barely visible in the background.

Fin Dome and Mount Rixford behind.

We stopped for lunch at the north end of the lowest Rae Lake. It started to rain a bit, so again we sought shelter, this time under a rock.

We didn’t hear any thunder during the rain spell and we wanted to cover some more ground today, so we pushed on in the rain. Rae Lakes was crowded as usual, but most people were at the designated camping area, or on their way there from Glen Pass. We passed a couple of folks who said there was a bear nearby. We stopped and looked around for a little bit, but couldn’t find it.

Shannon climbing towards Glen Pass.

Mount Rixford from Glen Pass.

When we crested Glen Pass, we were surprised to see blue sky to the south.

South Guard, Mount Brewer, North Guard, and Mount Farquhar from Glen Pass.

While the skies cleared over us, it was pretty cloudy to the north.

Charlotte Dome from the JMT south of Glen Pass. We were getting pretty tired by the time we reached the junction to Kearsarge Lakes. We’d have to go over Kearsarge Pass tomorrow to get our resupply. We debated whether to camp at Charlotte Lake or Kearsarge Lakes and settled on Kearsarge Lakes because it’s nicer, but that would require a few more miles on our tired legs.

East Vidette through the trees.

East Vidette, Vidette Creek, and Deerhorn Mountain.

The upper trail trail past Bullfrog Lake has some really nice views.

Eventually, we reached Kearsarge Lakes and made camp at one of the obvious campsites near the second highest lake. It was pretty busy. One group in particular was making quite a bit of noise, but they quieted down not long after sunset. The setting sun made for lovely views of the pinnacles.

We climbed up to the highpoint near the lake for sunset and saw that it was quite hazy to our west. We were able to stare directly at the sun, which appeared dark red on the horizon. Maybe we should have taken this as a warning of what was to come.

Lovely pastel clouds over University Peak.

We were glad to be within a few hours of our resupply over Kearsarge Pass. We figured the next day would be pretty easy to hike over, get it, and hike back, and then maybe head a few more miles south on the JMT.