Jordan Lake.

I began the day by climbing a bit above Pentad Lake then dropping down through the forest towards Jordan Lake. jordan Lake may have been the prettiest of the lakes I visited on the trip and also had the biggest fish I'd seen as well. Many in the 16-18" range. There were also many severly impacted camp sites around the lake, especially on the east side. Still, this was a good place to grab a snack and a break so i found a large boulder and watched the trout swimming about.

After a half hour it was time to get serious and begin the 500' climb to Jordan Pass. Again, the hike was through forest between 8900' and 9400' with very little view. I decided to make a game out of it and not stop for a rest until I made it up to the pass. The one break I had was a beautiful meadow with a great view to the east a little more than halfway to the pass. From the meadow it was an easy walk up to the Pass.

Once at the pass the trail gave back 400' of elevation via steep switchbacks then leveled out until I arrived at the North Fork of Wounded Man Creek and another beautiful meadow around noon. This looked like a good place for lunch but really wasn't as the flies were out in force here. I managed to keep my sanity and even enjoy the view while eating and being eaten, but had to get out of there after almost an hour of torture. Had it not been for the flies I might have set up camp in that meadow---it was that pretty.

A half hour of hiking brought me to the Lake Plateau and Wounded Man Lake. I spied a hiker for the first time in a couple of days coming towards me at a distance from the trail leading to Lake Pinchot but we never met. Fine with me.

View of Chalice Peak from Owl Lake.

When I got to the junction of the two trails I had to make a final decision regarding Chalice Peak: Yes or no? With regret II chose the safe alternative and pushed upwards toward Owl Lake. I got a good look at the bread, flat slopes of Chalice peak as I made my way uphill from Wounded man. It would have been an easy walk up with undoubtedly great views from the top. Once to Owl and Pipit Lakes the hiking was flat and the plateau dotted with lakes on both sides of the trail. I could have stopped anywhere and found a decent camp site but I pushed on to the Rainbow Lakes figuring that was when I'd be ready to stop for the day. There looked to be grassy meadows north of Lake 9436 that looked inviting on the topo so I figured to try there first.

Once I got my first views of Lake 9436 I realized I'd have to camp in the meadows just north of the lake as both the east and western shores were either right on the trail or on a slope. No biggie---the meadows above looked great.

Looking down on the tarns that fed my stream.

I hiked up another 100' or so and found a great patch of grass near an inlet stream and quickly set up the tent. It got cooler as the wind started to pick up and for a few minutes it looked like the afternoon thunderstorms were going to get me for sure. But I again got only sprinkles for a few minutes. Almost immediatley after the rain stopped the sky cleared, it warmed up and it was a beautiful afternoon once again.

Still somewhat regretting my decision not to try Chalice Peak, I threw on my Tevas and decided to follow the stream running near my camp to its source. The map showed a small tarn about a half mile north and 300' up. I figured I'd hike up and see what else I could find while I was there. Since nobody was around, it was safe for me to peel off my shirt and expose my lilly-white body without fear of blinding anyone. Besides, it was warm and I didn't feel like soaking my shirt with sweat again.

Once up to the tarn I kept heading north until I reached "the spot". I eventually found "the spot": a view overlooking the unnamed lake that feeds Hawley Creek and another unnamed lake a quarter-mile to the northwest. This would make a great area to base camp on another trip as there were a lot of great camp sites to choose from.

My camp at the northernmost Rainbow Lake.

I made my way back to camp via a different route along the slope to the west of my camp, descended, climbed a small ridge and looked down on my beautiful campsite. The lovely scene was shattered by the realization that I was really starting to stink to the point that I had this overriding compulsion to clean up when I got down to camp. By 8:30 I was only semi-smelly so I crawled into the tent to escape the masquitoes.

The sun now behind the mountains meant it was getting chilly. I had snuck Yumi's cap from our gear bin before leaving and was using it now. My camera battery, showing signs of an early death a day ago, joined me in the sleeping bag to prolong it's life if at all possible even though I figured the good photo ops were in the past. Yeah, it ws going to be a chilly one tonight, but at leat I could see how my new Western Mountaineering bag did in temps around the freezing mark and was looking forward to that, actually. I didn't bother to button down the tent so that I could get the full effect of the cooler weather. yeah, this might be fun.