6am to 5:30pm. 9.4 miles. 2 miles after leaving the JMT past Evolution Lake to Elba Lake in Humphreys Basin.

My pack felt a little better today. But it’s still too heavy. It was all off trail hiking today.

Early this morning we met up with 3 other hikers still in camp around Frances Lake. One is doing the entire SHR. The others are doing a section of it.

All of us met up on the top of Snow Tongue Pass but they went down much quicker. Then we were back alone on the SHR… just the way we like it.

Snow was a big part of today again. It was very firm in the morning on the way up and microspikes helped us. The first part of the descent from Snow Tongue Pass was on STEEP, loose rock of all sizes. We were sure to not move when anyone was below us. Then we got on soft snow which made travel easier for awhile. Until we got to the huge boulders.

Our path down Snow Tongue Pass

We were in Humphreys Basin the rest of the day.

Lunch. It always feels so good to rest AFTER we successfully cross another pass.

We passed many lakes and had a good mix of easy walking, big boulder field crossings and snow which was too soft by the end of the day.

Puppet Pass was more straight forward but we still took a circuitous route up. The way down was steep and rocky but at least most of the boulders weren’t loose.

View north from Puppet Pass

I voted to stop even earlier since I was tired and our original goal had been Mesa Lake before crossing Puppet Pass. But 2:30 was way too early for the other 2 to even think about stopping. So on I went. And as always once I stop for the day I never regret any extra miles. Plus we ended up with a perfect campsite at Elba Lake.