I usually don’t sleep all that well the first night out, but I woke up and felt great. I was a little worried that Annie would be walking around and would keep me awake, but she found a spot under the my hammock and was content. It was a cool night, 35f was the recorded temp in Isabella. We left the campsite at around 9:30. The trail had been getting more difficult the closer we got Superstition and continued be become more rugged. There were many downed trees to climb over, under or around. Even though the trail was more rugged, it was still relatively flat. The Mirror Lake site wasn’t all that bad, a little small but it was a lot better than that Campfire site. Todd got some nice shots of Path Lake as we passed. We ate lunch at a very nice site on Rock of Ages Lake. The water access there was a little difficult, but not all that bad. I would think you could setup two tents at the site without too much problem. I could spend hours looking at the stars from the large rock which looked over the lake. We pushed on to Lake Three and after some effort found our way to a nice canoe site that looked unoccupied. When we got right up to it however, we found a pair of boots and some other stuff strewn about. We were a little confused- there were no people, no canoes. We walked around a little and eventually say their tents back in the woods. It was a very nice site and I think we would have stayed there if it would have been open. Just a note, that site was on my map but not on Todd's. More of that later.

The site on Horseshoe Lake is not really part of the actual trail, so we had to bushwack our way to it, but it was worth the effort. It was open and it was nice. I think it was around 4:00 when we reached the site. We traveled maybe six miles in about as many hours. We did take a long lunch, but the trail was tougher and slowed us down. My feet were also slowing me down- Todd was a good sport and let me set the pace, and I appreciated that.

We had a pretty stiff and cold wind blowing into our camp from the east for most of the evening. The weather forecast called for thunderstorms after midnight so we both prepared our shelters as best we could. I had an extra tarp which provided more protection for my hammock and for Annie who hates storms. The storm never came, although we did see lightning and hear a little thunder just before bed toward the south.