6am to 7pm.
2 miles short of Wind River Peak to Trail junction north side of Big Sandy Lake.
8.1 miles.

Early morning shaddows.

Getting close to the top.

Wind River Peak, 13,192 ft.

It is very unnerving to walk down a steep slope when every rock you touch moves. I alternated between being afraid I would loosen a rock that would crush me, to worrying about starting a rock fall that would hit Rockin and/or Wired. 3 hours of that is too much.

Rockin and Wired... Way ahead again.

I didn't like the descent but the views were pretty great.

Wind River Peak is nice but not worth the descent down the west gully. Sure, it goes. But why do it? There is a Coon Lake bypass as a way to get off Wind River Peak that might have been a better option. But since it took 2 days to get where we are now I think a better option would be to just skip Wind River Peak and start the High Route at Big Sandy Trailhead and go directly to Cirque of Towers.

More rock to climb over.

Gotta love the granite walls.

Break time amongst the flowers

One of my favorite flowers.... elephantshead.

Am I hallucinating? I am seeing elephants all over the place.

Haystack Mountain. Chinchilla and Pyrite's climbed this today. How did they get off it?

It’s bear country out here so we are changing our routine. We stop to boil water and add it to our food. Then walk for 20 or 30 minutes, eat and walk to camp. This works fine with great weather. I don’t think I will like it in the rain. I usually soak my food in cold water to save the weight of stove and fuel. Dear sweet Rockin is boiling water for me. Hot food definitely tastes way better.

Camp above Big Sandy Lake

View from my tent before I fell asleep.