The image below taken at 6:40am on day 4 Tuesday July 24 just before we broke camp. After clouds disappeared during the evening, I dropped the tent canopy and used it like a bivy sack in order to be able to view the Universe. With sun out we were soon packed up and on our way crosscountry about a short mile but up 450 feet towards the lake basin on the bench north of Graveyard Peak containing Anne, Minnie, and Shiner lakes.
At the southwest end of Olive Lake the landscape jumps up steeply and my crosssountry route paid close attention to work up the least steep sections on the topo. It went well though was a bit awkward right at the top where we had to pass across the small stream. The weather was sunny with no clouds and intermittently breezy with downdrafts. By 8:30am we had reached the upper basin with meadows, forest, and rocky areas, We worked our way through a beautiful remote pond visible on Joe's pic here bottom right frame edge.
We then climbed up a short steep rocky rise of interesting gabbro granites and by 9:15am had reached the upper sections of Minnow Creek.
Walking by Minnie Lake we dropped in along Minnow Creek where we located a camp spot down in large shady mountain hemlock. Notice the small spot of blue that is Peter Pande Lake between trees just above the white boulder beside my tent?
By 11am we had made camp, pumped water from the creek, rigged up our fishing gear, and then hiked a half mile to Shiner Lake that reportedly had golden trout. Quite beautiful clear waters with fine sky views northwest. But no signs of any fish life on the breezy waters after casting in Kastmasters for half an hour.
We wandered over to nearby large Anne Lake and immediately rainbow trout were banging our lures on most every cast. Smaller and much more numerous fish than at Olive but there were some larger fish. Joe made a meal of it while I tossed back several pan sized trout plus one a foot long before returning to camp in order to instead cook up my Mountain House spaghetti with meat sauce freeze dried meal. We enjoyed our lunches, explored the local area, and took a dip in the creek. Later about 4pm we headed out to an overlook on the ridge west of Peter Pande Lake. With my SX130 I telephoto isolated a lodgepole pine against the beautiful high altitude aqua lake waters.
Up to this point on day 4 I had only exposed the 3 sheets of film on the second morning pond. But now with sunny weather, that would change.
A view towards the steep ridge above the southeast end of Peter Pande Lake that I had looked at closely on the topo before the trip while considering possibly making a direct route between there and Silver Fox Pass. Upon looking at it directly I was glad we had not gone that way. It appears one might descend class 2 in a couple places though would be dangerous with a heavy pack as it required some exposure above lethal cliffs.
A telephoto towards peak 3760 meters + northeast of large Lake Virginia that along with the JMT and PCT is just below the pines in front of the shorter rusty geology peak.
A telephoto of Red Slate and on its right shoulder a perpendicular view of the spectacular arete 11343 aka Piscator Peak just east of Hortense Lake.
At about 6pm, at page top, 150mm Nikor 4x5 transparency of the sequence of 3 northeast side bays of Minnie Lake with Graveyard Peak 11494 feet in the background.
The rest of the breezy afternoon was unproductive waiting to catch calmer moments on wavy lake waters. We retired after watching dusk set to the west as I hoped for the gusty winds to calm down as our one layover day would be next on day 5.
Next:
Day 5 Wednesday July 25