Jim Keener, a fellow JMT hiker under dark afternoon skies.
A light rain begins, but looks worse at higher elevation.
Zero day camp high above Upper Palisade Lake.
Head-on view of the Shires Tarp-tent. It is supported with a single trekking pole in the front.
A day later, the sun finally comes out.
Upper Palisade Lake
Dark skies towards Mather Pass worried us. As a light rain began to fall, we made camp with two other JMT hikers.
#27: 37.0537 N, 118.4721 W 10871'
A Zero Day
Along Bear Creek, we had been caught in a heavy rainstorm that we initially tried to hike through. The thought of such a storm catching us on Mather Pass worried us. We hunkered down along with two other JMT hikers and took a "zero day"—no mileage. Another experienced hiker passed our camp and decided to continue on over the pass. In the end, the rain was only moderate and he had no trouble.
We were pushed off our schedule a bit by this delay. Yet we made a reasonable decision. We spent the day resting, recharging and getting to know our trail-mates. After this rest, we made very good mileage the next few days.