The overnight rains were quite something, though they were only showers as the daybreak arrived. But my, oh my, was there ever a lot of water cascading down from the hills. Many low spots on the trails were running streams. We’ve had constantly wet shoes since day 2, what with rain, waterfalls, puddles, and now this heavy rain last night. None of us have the blisters so far. My new hiking shoes are the same size 14, but now in a wide width. Wet or not, my feet have been fine. I sleep in loose dry socks and I massage vaseline into my feet each evening when I climb into my hammock, and often in the morning before putting the wet socks on again.

Here’s a photo of a lovely little waterfall tumbling off Silver Peak at 2 P.M. on our way up, and then at 8 A.M. the next morning after the heavy rains as we headed down. Hard to believe this is the same falls!

Lots of mostly short ups and downs today. I don’t think they’re nearly the height nor the steepness of those along the north-western portion of the trail. Nevertheless, they come frequently. The wetness makes even the bare quartzite slippery, so we had to be very careful with every step across the open rocks.

The views from the ridges along and across the valleys were wonderful! The misted layers of hills and valleys and lakes were quite often breathtaking.

Bunnyrabbit Lake was clouded over and sadly colourless. I’ve hiked into Bunnyrabbit from Killarney Lake several decades ago with one of the two nieces from my earlier story. It was a sunny blue summer’s day, and the lake was a stunning aquamarine blue so typical of the Killarney Lakes nestled in the nutrient-starved acidic waters off the quartzite. Not today …

We went to bed early tonight. A long day tomorrow, aiming to get all the way out a day early.

I was counselled by Soheil to eat and drink substantially during the night so that I could properly recover from the day’s exertions. So in addition to about a thousand calories of supper (noodles, Jamaican soup mix, coconut milk powder, TVP), I took a concentrated granola bar and a bag of gorp into the hammock and consumed that along with two litres of water during the night. That’s another 1000 calories into my system.

The noteworthy event for tonight was the sudden and dramatic temperature change that accompanied the wind increase as the cold front cleared out the clouds of the day. I went to sleep sweating on top of my hiking quilt. At about 9:45, I was awoken by sudden gusts of wind and rapidly dropping temperature, plummeting from +18° to +5°, all without any precipitation. I sat on the edge of my hammock, feet dangling outside, crunching through the bag of nuts and chocolate and dried fruits, loving the blast of cooler and dryer air. And then quickly drank up and gladly cuddled down into the warmth of my top quilt and my underquilt.