It was day 12, and our trek neared its end. As I looked at the stars in the night sky that night, I thought about what a good trip it had been, and how hard it would be to go back to work in a few days.

Today Emma and I would reach yet another high point, Feather Pass. First, we had to tackle the pass directly ahead of us, White Bear Pass, which we could see from the campsite.

As the sun came up over the peaks, we began our climb up the class 3 talus.Near the top, we turned left to avoid a steep headwall, eventually topping out at 11,900 ft.The top of this pass had a snowfield and a lake! A short traverse then led to a view of the next pass, Feather Pass.Before we could ascend the pass, we had to descend a bit, and navigate the "convoluted" Bear Lakes basin, as described by Steve Roper. Each lake in this area had a bear themed name, i.e. Ursa Lake, Bear Paw Lake.We got lost a few times but eventually we found the correct gully leading down to Black Bear Lake. We stopped for a lunch break and continued upward to Feather Pass.Below the pass we ran into a group of 4 backpackers who had started from Pine Creek Canyon near Bishop/Round Valley. They too were going mostly cross country, and making up a route of their own.From the top of Feather Pass we searched for our next objective. We had originally planned to stop at Merriam Lake, but it looked far too close for us to end the day there. Ahead of schedule, we quickly descended the easy side of the pass and reached La Salle Lake, then Merriam Lake.La Salle lake was a bit disappointing with a lot of bugs, but Merriam Lake was nice!While we relaxed at the sandy shore, we realized that we could finish a day early if we made a big push today. We decided to continue to Elba lake, down and up another drainage, to put ourselves in position for the last two passes of the high route.The prospect of finishing early suddenly meant we had a lot of extra food, so we feasted on all our snacks. Unfortunately, on the way down from Merriam lake Emma rolled her ankle stepping down from a rock. It was the same one she had injured before, and although it wasn't super serious we decided to stop for the night in a meadow, and reevaluate in the morning.

I rinsed off in the stream and ate two dinners. The chicken teriyaki from the brand Refuel was actually kinda good, veggies were nice. Second dinner was my last annies mac and cheese of the trip, spiced with red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese.

Brown Bear Lake to a meadow below Merriam Lake - 6.48 mi and 2579 ft gained.