We knew we would have a big uphill today so we packed up and was ready to go by 6am. But once we got to the Red’s Meadow Café at 6:15am, the thought of waiting 45 minutes for REAL COFFEE stopped us in our tracks. Of course, we needed something to go with the coffee, fried potatoes/veggies for Seasoned Strider, and bagel/cream cheese for me, so three cups of coffee later we finally departed Red’s Meadow at 9:15am. Yes, a very late start for us. Blame it on the coffee! Headed down to Devil’s Postpile to check out the monument. Lots of people here so we wore our mask/face coverings the whole time. Continued on the trail, had lunch at Gladys lake and watched the thunder clouds collect. Heard thunder. Made it to Shadow Lake before the thunderstorm really got going, boom, crash, flash, and then the rain started. Broke out the rain gear and hoped it was going to be a short storm. Nope. Continued up and gawked at the amazing roar of water cascading down the creeks and river. Ran into a couple of older guys hiking southbound, one with ancient gear. We were amazed he could carry all that gear with his pack practically falling off his shoulders. We finally arrived at the top of the saddle where it was cold and super windy. No way I could use the umbrella at this point, but the rain had pretty much stopped anyway. We dropped over the saddle and downhill to Garnet Lake where we were greeted with parting clouds and late sunshine reflecting on the water. Hiked around the end of the lake, over the bridge and found a spot to camp. A 13.6 mile day with 3,671 elevation gain. Two other guys going southbound were already there. They were from Colorado, lived at the 10,000 ft level so were used to the elevation. Nice chatting with them.