The Sun will come out TOMORROW, bet you're bottom dollar.......Day 10. 15 miles. 28,128 steps.

Just north of Lil' Pete Meadow.

Woke up to a torrential downpour at 4:30am.  All my clothes are wet. I'm so over this weather. Mentally, I'm at the end of my rope with this weather.  It's pretty challenging, day after day, not to mention the thunder/lightening storms at elevations where no man should be during such an electrical storm.  My DeLorme texts to Kevin are getting grim, but he keeps texting back.  "It's a MENTAL game, get your mind into the right space and only QUIT tomorrow...Every day say you will quit tomorrow.

I had to start hiking today with my SmartWool thermals on under my rain gear.  Lovely outfit that my daughter would just DIE if she saw. We decided as a group to try and make it to Sapphire Lake so we would have the earliest approach to Muir Pass.  Made it to Sapphire fairly early in the day and saw the German boys.  We all talked about the Pass and decided to go ahead and go for it, as the day was still young.

I turned into the Bionic Woman.  I was going to make it over that darn pass before the storm hit, no matter what.  I didn't think I had another gear, but I did.  I was so scared of being so exposed on that pass, that I just walked super fast.

Muir Hut was fantastic.  We had a party with us 4, 2 Day Hikers and the German boys.  I made Tea and the Day hikers from Washington (came to the Sierra's to escape the rain !!!) had a flask of Bourbon, which we mixed with the tea.

 Stayed for about 1 hour, waiting for the rain/hail to slow down.  The hike down Muir Pass was steep and super rocky for about 4 miles.  Pretty technical walking, had to really concentrate.  The storm was really building up big.  This day was just a little bit different than the other storms, something was brewing big.  As we were hiking down, I saw my neighbor and friend, Dan the Postman!  We had been hoping that we may run into each other as he was doing the North Lake/South Lake loop and there was a chance that we may cross paths.  I wish I would have taken a picture of us, but that storm was coming and our greeting was short.

We found a campsite of sorts.  There were other hikers all around us, but it didn't matter.  We needed to get our tents up quick.  There was some force behind this monster of a storm.

Then it happened.  Holy crap.  Never in my life have I ever experienced a storm like this, inside my house nor camping.  Kathleen instructed us all how to get in the "lightening position" inside our tents. The hail was coming down pretty hard and fast.  We had over 4 inches of hail in less than 10 minutes.  Joan's tent was in a huge puddle.

I knew I was going to loose it any minute now, but we focused on picking up Joan's tent and moving it to a higher spot.  I was scared to death and was hoping if the lightening hit me, it would be quick and painless.  Gerhardt (German Dad) helped us with trenching all around the tents.

He used the walking sticks, I preferred my titanium lid.  The trenches were helpful in keeping the water flowing and not puddling under our tents.
I'm really scared.  What will this night bring?  How long will this lasts? The storm keeps circling around this little canyon.  Kathleen looked out her little tent window and saw a bolt hit the rock canyon across from our campsite.

I want this night to END.