Camping at over 10,000 feet elevation in mid-October is a cold thing to do — I’ll be wearing a shirt, a flannel, and a jacket to bed tonight. Left Glendale last night, slept for a few hours in the back of the Subaru, then woke up at 6:00 this morning and drove the rest of the way up to Mineral King. Picked up a hitchhiker on the way, which isn’t something I would normally do but I figured anyone hitching up to Mineral King had to be all right. Saw a black bear on the road, and all told today I’ve seen more deer than people — never a bad thing.
The trail up here starts at 7800 feet, and between the altitude, the fact that I haven’t been running, and the pack on my back I was completely wiped out when I got to my camping spot. Took a three hour nap in the afternoon, then went out to watch the sunset and the stars. I used to think that bears didn’t come up this high, but there are two huge piles of bear crap within thirty feet of my tent that are convincing me otherwise, and since I don’t have a bear cannister to store my food in I’m very much hoping that I’ll be able to spend the night without visitors.