I woke up and I still had a slight headache I'd had the previous night. I was
somewhat surprised. I assumed it was altitude-induced, but I thought I'd be
acclimatized by now. I checked my blood oxygen saturation, and it was 87%.
Virtually unchanged since the time I got to the lake. I didn't know what to make
of it. In any case, I figured we'd be heading back down today, so it wouldn't be
a problem. Still, it occurred to me that this was the highest point I'd ever
slept at. The lake is set at 9012 feet, higher than Tuolumne Meadows Campground in
Yosemite, my previous sleeping high point.
Peak reflecting the water as seen from the outlet cove
After breakfast we broke camp. It was clear that we'd have a lot of extra food
to take back, but there wasn't much we could do about it now. I believe we would
have eaten more if we'd actually backpacked all three days. Instead, the "off" day
meant more stuff to carry back on the last day. Still, with less fuel and food,
my pack was definitely lighter.
We were ready to go at about 10:15am. We said good bye to the beautiful lake and
promised to return some day. We headed back the way we came. It seemed so much
different in reverse. Views of forested mountains opened up in front of us and
to the right. I hadn't noticed them before when they were behind us and to the left
on the way in. We hiked on barren rock under a bright sun, climbing slightly
until we encountered the steep ascent (which was a steep descent before) up to Poop
Out Pass. It was tough going, but short, and we soon found ourselves up and over the
pass.
Contrary to the hike in, we hardly saw anyone on the hike out. The entire hike we
saw two day hikers and two backpackers. We saw no one until I noticed a teenager
with headphones coming up from behind us. I recognized him as one of the people who
had been fishing at the lake with his dad. We let him pass, but he stopped at a
stream shortly thereafter and we continued on.
We stopped underneath the shade of a tree to rest. From here, we could see Poop
Out Pass far behind us. I pointed it out and Jean was shocked that we'd been
there. As I suspected, she admitted that she would have been intimidated if I'd
told her on the way in where we were headed.
Looking out at Poop Out Pass
Two day hikers passed us in the opposite direction and we wouldn't see anyone again
until the fishermen caught up to us as we rested by the same trail intersection we'd
stopped at on the way in. We knew we were only 20 minutes away as we enjoyed the
cool stream and last bit of wilderness before heading back to civilization.
We passed by tiny fox meadow and started keeping our eyes peeled for the fallen tree
on our right. Luckily, I had my wits about me as we passed a spur trail on the right.
There was no fallen tree there; instead, there were branches laid out on the ground
in the form of a big arrow. I looked around and spotted the fallen tree a few feet
away, tossed aside. Apparently someone on the way in had decided to replace the
tree with an arrow so they wouldn't get lost on the way back. It almost caused us
to get lost.
The end in sight
After a few minutes we could suddenly see the car in the parking lot through the
trees. And then we were done. A beautiful backpacking trip completed. There were
a handful of cars left in the parking lot. We packed up and prepared ourselves for
perhaps the toughest part of our journey -- the bumpy drive on the dirt road back down.
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