We finally made it back to our campsite around 5:00 in the afternoon. We were both beat at that point, so we had a quick dinner, and shared a quick "Conan the Mouseketeer" story or two before the sun went down. At one point Sam tried to reapportion our loads not realizing that he had, on an earlier trip, told me the story of his carrying the bear can which got lighter and lighter day after day as the food was eaten. His climbing partner never did get to hand off any gear during that trip, so I felt it was only right that Sam keep all the gear that he came up with... especially since I originally offered to let Sam take the bear can!

In this shot we've begun to break down our campsite above Brainerd lake. It's a nice lake protected by a large cirque so it's not very windy. The weather was actually very nice to us. We had clear days, and the nights were not cold at all (in fact at the trailhead our water bottles froze to near slush, but up at high camp one night they were only slightly frozen, the other night not at all).