We woke up early and made one last stop at Schats Bakery for breakfast before getting a ride back to the trailhead.

There was a cold front coming in making for a very windy and cold day. A couple inches of snow (in addition to what was already up in the mountains) were predicted over the next two days, so we were eager to knock out some miles before it hit.

We hiked back up the Onion Valley trail and over Kearsage Pass and back to the PCT. It was so windy we had to stop several times and brace ourselves to avoid being blown over.

After getting to the PCT, we worked our way towards Glenn Pass admiring the beautiful scenery along the way.

After making it to the top of Glenn Pass, we stopped to put on our micro spikes to tackle the long, steep snow traverse on the back side. If you zoom in, you can see two other hikers working their way across.

We slowly made our way across.

After the traverse we worked our way down to Rae lakes.

Despite the cold, I couldn’t help but make a few casts and landed a brook trout.

We set up camp near the lake and settled in for a cold night.