To Ten Lakes and then home

Wow did that oatmeal taste good
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After getting a needed good night sleep we woke up and got our oatmeal on -- I must say that instant oatmeal tastes 100 times better on a backpacking trip.

We started out our morning hiking a couple of miles down a beautiful meadow through a canyon along side a small creek. We stopped to look at the map, knowing that we were going to be crossing sharply across the creek and up the other side of the canyon, however as we were walking we realized that the trail look a little different but I insisted that we were on a trail -- and I was right, it was indeed a trail, but it was not THE trail. My map wasn't incredably helpful. I noticed that the trail was getting very rocky and steep, long story short, we hiked a mile off the human trail and followed a game trail until we came to the most beautiful cliff and one of the (in my opinion) most beautiful rock cliff and gigantic jagged mountains.

Are we there yet?

Yes, thats me
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After we back tracked a little while we found the trailand made our way torwards Ten Lakes. We finally  arrived at the first and the highest of the Ten Lakes but we didn't stay for long knowing that we had a long way to go that day and that we wanted to get to the lower lakes to eat our lunch.

On our way down we ran into a couple of guys with fishing poles who we asked to takeour pctures in front of the lake. When we found the lake, the lake found us very ready for lunch and quick swim.

Kristin and I at Ten Lakes (thanks to the fishermen who were nice enough to take our pictures)
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We found a nice flat rock by the lake where we fired up our wisper light and cooked some chicken and rice. I then spotted a rock that looked like a nice spot to jump from. After a quick survey of the area I jumped in the freezing cold lake.  I didn't swim for long, but it was very refreshing.

After lunch we begun the last climb on our hike and enjoyed the beautiful view of  four of the lake. We were exausted but enjoyed the views and the nature around us. We also enjoyed seeing clean couples (like us) who just started their hike and were going the opposite way on the trail we came from. After three or four miles of hiking we were stopped by a park ranger who asked to see our wilderness permits -- fortunatly we had them. The ranger looked at me and asked me to take a rest. He then pointed to the ground by my bag and said "what is that pill by your backpack, will you give it to me?" I was a little nervous because I thought that he may be thinking that it was my pill -- but it wasn't. He told me it was a weight loss pill and I was relieved because it was clear to him that it was not mine. The ranger continued to tell us some recent stories about bears in the area and how he was looking for a juvinial bear who had either recently slipped its collar or had died. After our rest we wished the ranger good luck on his trip and continued on our way.

Waiting for me to bring the car back
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When we arrived at tioga road we realized that we were done. I hitched a ride with a guy back to our car in exchange for filling a couple of water bottles from a stream using my filter and a few bucks.

We were exhausted and were happy to be done with our trip. We enjoyed almost every minute and looking back can not wait for the next opportunity to go back.