June 25
1037-1064
You know you are tired when you wake up and already fantasize about the end of the day so you can sleep again.
Over this last stretch my shin bone has been painful when I step too hard. This is especially noticable when I have to kick steps into snow. Some days my lower leg becomes quite swollen. I think I deeply bruised by tibia when I slammed it against a a boulder in the Sierra. I have been keeping an eye on it, and it has improved considerably since this picture was taken:
The volcanic soil erupts with a beautiful display of wildflowers the 2 weeks after the snow melts, and we are passing through during the perfect time.
Flowers are everywhere. We have read that since the growing season is so short, all these plants are perennials. Annuals cannot survive here, their life cycle is too long to flourish in the short growing season here.
Remarkably, some of these tiny plants are many decades old. Popping back up every year when the snow is fully melted. At a road crossing a canopy tent is set up in a little turnout, and a man offers to cook us eggs, chili, and a piece of sourdough bread. It is a wonderful treat.
The man, and the meal, look very familiar to me. It turns out this same man was up here in 2013, serving the same meal for hikers. Our day ends with a steep traverse over a lingering snowfield. You can see the trail crossing the top of it in this picture:
A slip here would be disastrous. After we cross we see a hiker we know, papa bear, who was rattled by the traverse. “I need a shot of whiskey” he tells us. Apparently he lost his footing while crossing and nearly fell. Yikes. We camp in mosquito hell and retreat to our tent as quickly as possible.
Homestead Hikers 
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