Mono

Again, didn't sleep well, but had a great day. Maybe I'm inflating the Thermarest too much? It feels better slightly under inflated, but it's definitely not wide enough.

We started the day with an out and back to Mott Lake. It was only a couple miles each way, and definitely worth it. 

When we got back to camp it still wasn't very warm, so we packed up and headed out. We started ascending Mono Creek and finally hit running water in the sun around 11 so we stopped there and cooked hot food on a lovely beach by the creek. 

Starbucks Via, and most other instant coffee tastes like metal and is awful--that was the only downside. Laird Hamilton has some coffee+coconut creamer+mushroom powder ("adaptogens" which are all the rage but quite obviously snake oil). I had one of those yesterday and that tasted halfway decent, but I only brought one because they're annoyingly expensive. I think the thing to do would be to grind my own beans at home, put a scoop in a paper filter, tie the filter shut with twine, and then in the field just soak the filter packet in hot water. I'll have to test that at home...

After hot lunch we climbed into P Basin. It was gorgeous. Surrounded by high walls, with low hills separating the lakes from each other. Mostly whitebark pine, and little else. Amazing views to the south across the Mono. I bet it's usually full of anglers but I had the place to myself. (I haven't seen a soul in over 48 hours.)

I set up my tarp quickly on a lake that Phil Arnot's guidebook says is a must-visit (it's OK, but it's not the best in the basin). With my pack lightened Margo and I set off for Stanford Col. It is described as class 3, easy on the south, steep on the north, but with a use trail coming up from the lake on the other side. How is that possible? If there's a trail, it's not class 3. 

If it went, it would be the easiest way back to the car to finish our loop. The south face is indeed easy, but the view of the other side was an instant no-go. Yes, it's steep, but fine, it would be doable. But after a couple hundred feet of that, there looked to be a mile or so of garbage, just big talus that I don't want to force Margo through.

So we turned around. Before descending I yelled out, and had possibly the best echo ai have ever experienced. I could hear it reverberating for a full ten seconds, and that was absolutely the only sound at all. Awe inspiring.

The sun was setting and the alpenglow was lovely. I didn't want to just sit, so I collapsed the tarp quickly and we descended out of the basin, down the Mono a bit, and partly up the next drainage that should have a class 2 pass that we'll use to get back into McGee tomorrow.

24 miles today.