10 July: we hit the trail by 6 AM and had about 2 miles or so to go to before the ascent of Anderson pass. this is the highest pass we would walk over at 12,800 ft. Kings Peak is a side trail straight up the mt and I passed on hiking it. my main goal of this hike was to see if my knee and ft would allow me to walk for several days with out pain. In the end all was good. We could see clouds forming early so we hiked fast with a few breaks to get to North Star lake. this lake is above tree level, and out in the open at aprox 11200 ft. Larry Boy hiked kings peak and we moved on. We set up camp and got inside our tents by 1330 just as the first rain drops fell. about an hr later the rain stopped and Sherpa and grizzley got some fishing in, catching small brook trout. Larry Boy showed up and wondered why we were camping in no cover. Around 1530 rain started falling again and everyone went into their tents. The rain would continue to fall until well after 130 AM the next day. I have never been in a rain in UT that rained so hard for so long. It was as constant battle to keep the rain from getting inside my tarp tent. Then the rain stopped and the wind picked up. We estimated that the winds were sustained at over 55 miles an hour. The bottom of me tent was over my head when I was laying on it. I got out once for a bathroom break and tripped over my front guideline holding my tent up. So in this wind the tent came flying down, in the dark, in the rain, I had to search for my glasses and headlight so I could get my tent back up. after about 10 minutes of "oh hell" I managed to get things in place. I hopped back into my sleeping bag, wet and cold. I zipped up the mummy bag, put ear plugs in to try and deafen the roar of the tent flying in the wind and said hell with it and tried to get some sleep.
Larry Boy's tent came flying down in the night and he ended up in Sherpa's tent... another one-man tent. what happens on the trail stays on the trail so I will not go into anymore details on that. although both of them woke up in great moods.....hmmmmmm.
we all swore that no more above tree line camping on this trip. Larry Boy stated that I can no longer...ever pick a camping spot. It was one of those nights you read about, to survive it just made us stronger. I definitely was tired for the day though.
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