October 2

It was cold in the valley again this morning. It's a sink with tall passes all around and a river nearby that makes for a perfect place for the frigid air to just hang around. Once hiking, I met a northbound JMT hiker (John Muir Trail). He gave me the news on hikers ahead of me and said "the European" (referring to Louis) "looked chill, and was cruisin'. This is good news as he hiked out with shin splints and was uncertain as to maybe this being the end of his hike. I still haven't heard from him, but did see his tracks on the trail. The pace he was walking was actually quite slow and I don't know yet if that is because of the relatively low mileage or the pain from shin splints. 

My hike today was fantastic. I went over a huge pass at the end of the valley. I remember looking up at the walls of granite and saying aloud to the forest "there is no fun way out of here." The wind on top was ripping through me as I was down to shorts and one layer on top from climbing all morning. It chilled me quite a bit until I got lower and out of the wind where I had my lunch. I went over a little 500 ft. pass after lunch, and have made it to a trailhead with adequate camping arrangements, a bear box for my extra food and a pit toilet for the morning.