Well, it was supposed to be the start of a great fall backpacking season. A trip in the Minarets, from Devil's Postpile, to Minaret Lake, cross country to Cecile and Iceberg Lakes, dropping down to Ediza and out to Reds Meadow. Unfortunately, for me, this trip turned out to be my one and only fall trip. My permit to hike Whitney two weeks after this trip, and our other trips would not include me. My long suffering foot with a Neuroma said "no more" after we finished this trip. So five days after this trip I was under the knife. I'm hoping that the short term annoyance will result in a long term benefit of pain free hiking and packing.

Michael (Ferretlegger) and I had a wonderful trip. We had mainly good weather with just a couple instances of drizzle. Each trip we try to decrease our weight and every ounce is carefully weighed on his high tech scale. In the end, we always end up with more than we wanted, but hey, at least we're reasonably comfortable and secure. Notwithstanding the fact we could probably do an appendectomy with our first aid kit, or that when we get to camp after a hard hiking day I want to use the Sat Phone to call out for pizza.

Our trip from Minaret up to Cecile and Iceberg Lakes was primarily cross country with a tad bit of class 3 or easy 4 scrambling. The use trails were quite defined. It did involve 6 hours of talus and scree hiking which I think was what finally did my foot in. In some places the talus was not well settled and I would get alot of wobbling as I moved through it. A couple places during some steeper descents the scree was much like pea gravel and basically we would just "ski" down it planting our poles and turning. Near the end of the talus, with a nice trail in my sights, I was moving along smartly (for me over talus); misjudged my momentum and the weight of the backpack propelled me forward into a perfect face plant! The brim of my hat and sunglasses (popped a lens) took the brunt of the plant. No damage other than humiliating. Luckily Michael was too far ahead to get a picture but the weight of the pack on the back of my head and neck made getting up a comical maneuver.

We saw so little snow. Very sad. Snow would have made the talus and scree traverse so much more tractable if we could have used crampons and axes. The streams were running strong and lovely.

There wasn't a trail sign post we passed that didn't have a nice poster asking hikers to be looking out for Matthew Greene. Some of the hikers we met queried "wasn't he just found?" I think they confused him with a list hiker on Whitney whose body had been found in just the weeks before.

So my hope is my foot will be all ready for our winter camping and sledge pulling. This year with no pain. Of course, the weather needs to cooperate too!

Some random beauty
Mike checking out out first scramble area.
Oh how I wish there was snow.
Whenever I encounter little wooded glens I call them "enchanted forests"
Mike hiking along.
A pretty cascade
Mike, sans pack, scouting a scramble we needed to do to pass from Minaret Lake to Cecile.
Taking a break before I slog up the scramble
Geez, what's that????
More talus hiking.
I think I'm in the middle of that picture.
About 2 minutes after this picture I did a face plant. Grace on talus.
We had just basically "skied" down that notch of scree
Looking back on Minaret Lake
Are we f'ing done yet with the talus?
Dropping down into Ediza after a hard day.
I was so pooped by the time I reached this bridge I was wondering if I really could cross it!
Aww relaxing and reading maps under our tarp. Yes, we carry a tent also. Not sure we'll ever be ultra lighters,
A pano. I have a little Optio that can do panos, although I often find I end up adding mountains if I don't get the overlays correct.
This was a great camp spot.
Nice to see many posters for Matthew.
Mike in front of Clyde
I wanted to use our Sat Phone to call out for pizza. Nope. Dinner in a bag.
One pant leg up, one down. No fashion statement. That was a HARD day.

A great trip. I'd do it again and add some more days to it and get to some more lakes.

Susan