Miles 720.7 to 738.3
Trail Miles: 17.6
I woke early and tried to retrieve the food from the Bear Hang Surge had put up the night before. — We all had Bear canisters but too much food (7days) to fit in them. Surge had used PCT method of hanging food. I didn’t realize that and wound up making it more difficult to retrieve the food. It took 5 of us nearly an hour to get it down. It was about 10 ft off the ground on a slope. Eventually we stacked two Bear cans, I held them while Smokebeard managed the line and Fireball stood on them and used a trekking pole to unknot the rope.
I got on the trail at 0722. Stopped for water after a quarter mile, then to shed layers and finally to offload a 2lb deuce. It seemed to take forever to get going! 
Hiked with Smokebeard most of the morning. Talked about a variety of things. There’s a Military Training Route (MTR -low level) that crosses the mountains we’re hiking through, just west of Owens Lake. We heard and saw several fast movers, 2-F-16s, at least 1-F-15, and even a C-17 (woo hoo!!)!
What I think is the remains of a Foxtail Pine
At lunch Happy Feet asked if he could talk to me about Veganism and vegetarianism. He’d been a vegetarian most of his life and had gone vegan a year ago. We hiked and talked the rest of the afternoon, climbing above 10,000. He’s very knowledgeable and has a compelling position that addresses several perspectives. I’m not an easy convert but he gave me a lot to think about. I really enjoyed the conversation and will do some more reading on my own.
Views looking east towards Owens Valley
The trail climbed through alpine forest and we had great views of the Sierra granite yet to come as well as if Owens Lake and the White Mountains across the Owens Valley. The clouds started gathering and turning dark as was the afternoon pattern the last three days. We could see rain and virus to the north. Eventually there was the crack of thunder and it started hailing. The lightning was unnerving as we were above 10,000 surrounded by trees on a mountain. By the time Happy Feet and I reached the campsite everyone else was hunkered in their tents while it continued to hail and rain. A bolt of lightning struck and thunder followed less than 2 sec later. It was close enough to get everyone’s attention.
Surge, Gargoyle, Cy, Happy Feet and Kenny managed to find some dry wood and start a fire. By 6:30 the rain had mostly stopped and we all gathered around the fire to eat and dry clothes. It was fun to be together, eating, laughing and keeping warm by the fire. First night camping above 10,000 ft. (10.3k)
The gathering storm
