10.9 miles, 2600' gain, 2600' descent

During this last day my head is filled with reminiscence and reflections. I am ready to go home, yet not ready for this experience to be over. Today's trail is a mostly uneventful Big Up followed by Big Down, but at this point I am literally taking such things in my stride. Its most notable feature is a washed out section along the side of Stevens Canyon, where the trail crosses an old landslide with loose, unstable footing. I had read and worried much about this, but in the end it was no problem at all (luckily it was dry that day).

At Reflection Lakes I experienced for the first time a phenomenon I had read about. I could no longer smell myself or other backpackers, but when I encountered day hikers I found the clouds of chemically fake flower scent that surrounded them nearly overwhelming. Yikes! If they smell like that to me, I can only imagine what I must smell like to them :-)

And that's it. Back to my car, a few hours on the road, then to hug Tracy and pet the dogs and take a bath and eat pizza.