Page 2: Castle Pass to Holman Pass

Rock Pass

A short distance from Castle Pass, one passes Hopkins Lake which sits in a picturesque bowl under the Devil’s Stairway.

We passed this very pretty lake and began the serious work of climbing up the Devil’s Stairway. The views from the top made the hard work worthwhile. We gawked at the scenery for awhile, then dropped down to Woody Pass (6624'). This was poorly named, as it was actually a rocky cleft between two peaks. Then the clouds came in, or rather we walked into them. Mel and I stopped to put our ponchos on.

Moving on, we descended to Rock Pass (which was very woody) at 6491’ and took a short lunch. While there, we met a hiker who was up for the day. He told us the weather was predicted to be unusually hot for the next week. Our spirits were visibly raised.

By the time we reached Holman Pass we were in sunshine! We proceeded a bit further and camped off the trail for the night. It rained a few drops, but nothing serious. In the morning the clouds had mostly lifted.

Gosh, this was only day three, and I was already starting to get tired of brown rice and raisins and oatmeal. Mel and I definitely had opposing views of what should be consumed on a hike.

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