I wouldn't say I was feeling better, but that Far Out was now feeling sick as well, making me feel better by comparison. After Selden came a day with no actual passes, but no lack of blasted long, poorly graded switchbacks up Bear Ridge. We both sweated buckets up to the top of the ridge. Another biologist hiker, friendly young girl from the Bishop Hostel, passed us and asked how we were. "Hot," I replied. She turned a little and called from above, "it's fucking hot as balls." "Well put," was all I could say, impressed with her candor and eloquence on a goddamned freakishly humid day.

When we'd finally completed the godawful downhill to match the uphill, we started a bit up Silver Pass, another 3000' plus climb over 8 miles or so. We only bit into a few hundred feet of it, exhausted and sick, but came across a campsite next to an ideal fishing hole. I caught a couple of small trout for dinner with my trekking pole method in just 20 minutes or so, and Far Out and I enjoyed them far from our sleeping area in that bear heavy place.

Evidently, the best photo I have from this day is a blurry camp photo