](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
I was thinking that maybe I would just leave my bear can at the trailhead and do a really long day hike and go to every lake out there or maybe just go sleep under the stars but there was chances of rain. What to do? I decided that I would maybe see if someone would be willing to let me borrow their poles and I would mail them back when I got home. I started down the trail and saw a guy who I think would understand my predicament and started telling him my story. He said no prob and I got his info and he gave me his poles! Erik, if you're reading this you are awesome! I was sooo relieved and started charging up the trail towards Gem lakes. Dade Lake was my goal, away from the hoards in LLV. I took an odd route, what I am calling odd as you can see from my zig zagging on the map, up from the trail over the little hill to Dade. Once I left the trail and headed to Dade the people disappeared. There are a few cool little wind walls built up at Dade Lake and so I found the "best" 1 and setup my tent. I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the immediate area taking photos and checking out different things and pondering what to do tomorrow. The clouds starting turning dark and it eventually started sprinkling so I jumped into my tent and listened to a podcast. That only lasted about 30 minutes or so and I was back outside enjoying the solitude. About 230am it started raining and kept up for maybe an hour or so but nothing much. Just a nice steady rain. I was up early and looked at the sky, the clouds were gray but not very threatening. I decided that I had a solid 5 or so hours before any sort of weather was produced so off I went up the hill to Bear Creek Spire. The route up to Cox Col is very straight forward. I was up over the crest in about 90 minutes which surprised me. It was only 8am and I was making great time. I attached a picture of the notch I went thru. I thought that was Cox Col but looking at Gaia later, it looks like I went thru North Col. That sorta makes sense because I guess Cox is really loose and I did not experience that at all. The route I took up over the crest was not loose but actually quite nice. It was early so I kept going up. I knew there was the "cl.4 headwall" that I was going to encounter so I kept my eyes peeled for that. I even printed out the little picture Bob Burd has posted on his site showing the "easy way" through the cl.4 headwall. I reached a point about 13,500' or so that I just could not pass comfortably. I kept looking at that photo and trying to compare it to what I was standing in front of but it appears that I was not at the headwall but at some other wall that was a bit out of my comfort zone. I spent about an hour + going back and forth, back and forth, trying to figure out the best way up. I kept hoping that someone else would come by attempting to get up on top of BCS and show me the error of my ways but that never happened. After over an hour of back and forth I turned around and went down, defeated again in the high country. I hate when this happens, my route finding sucks sometimes. I headed back the way I came hanging out at the Col for a bit enjoying the view towards Hilgard and such. I ended up back at camp and cooling off a bit in Dade Lake. I packed up my stuff and decided to head towards Treasure Lakes a bit on the way back to my car. I enjoyed my hike out but I was really beat by the time I got back to my car. I changed my clothes and headed North back to NV. Between Mammoth and June lake, going over Deadmans, I ran into some of the hardest rain I had seen in many years. There was mudslides coming down the hill bringing rocks and lots of debris down. It was a little freaky but only lasted about 20 minutes then it was all gone. I stopped at Jolly Cone for a burger and was home in no time. All in all it was a great time. I didn't see anyone else for about 30 hours except 2 guys who were coming off BCS on Saturday afternoon and passed by Dade Lake. The night was super warm and I had my sleeping bag open. No bugs either. It was a great way to end July. Thanks for reading
