Death Canyon - Chicken Spring Lake 6/21/10 19 miles

With all intentions of getting up earlier than usual, our sleeping bags were just too warm. We got up, ate breakfast and headed out around 8am. We began the morning with a steep climb. In three miles we gained 1600 ft. The higher we hiked, the chillier it became. The wind howled throughout most of the day. We had some amazing views today. The snow capped mountains we had once yearned for the previous days, were now under our feet. Snow covered the trail in many spots along today's adventures. Sometimes we went around, and sometimes we had to go over. I bundled up in pants, long sleeves, toboggan and at times my gloves as the temperatures dropped. Chris, on the other hand, continued to cruise along in swimming trunks and short sleeved shirt. My boyfriend is nutso! We passed some of our friends from Kennedy Meadows along the way and met some new faces. A Belgian fella by the name of Chris discussed his destination and we debated with him on climbing Mt. Whitney. He asked, "Are ye from Australia?" He then proceeded to say that he had never quite heard accents like ours. We laughed about this on up the trail. We met a section hiker named Brent who was a Southern CA native. He warned us about the clouds that were beginning to hover, stating that it would be thunderstorms or snow. We took his word for it, assuming rain was on the way. A few miles up the trail, we began to see white dustings. I thought that the elevation was just getting to my head (it could have also been denial), but yep, it was snowing, IN JUNE. We finally made it to camp and rushed to put up the tent, the sleet began. We got into the tent and put on warmer clothes and pretty much stayed there until bedtime. We cooked under the vestibule. We guessed that the temp was around 30 degrees. Mac and cheese and some hot green tea for dinner. It's going to be a very difficult task to get me out of my sleeping bag in the morning. KB