Day 7 - The clouds part in the morning, but we're pretty tired. So we call it another rest day.
photo 1 - looking north at the Cirque of the Towers
photo 2 - Demonstrating proper rest day activities with proper head gear.
Day 8 - The day started out rough. Millie had been amazing while in the Cirque. She would stay at camp and wait for us to return without being leashed. Our camp here (between Clear Lake and Deep Lake) sees more people passing by. This is one theory. Because we went to attempt the North Face of Haystack - a classic 5.6 route - and on the approach Millie showed up, forcing us to turn around. It turned out ok, because clouds moved in again. But still, we couldn't trust her anymore and her days of freedom were over. We really wanted to climb something however, so when the clouds looked pretty broken up by 2pm we ran up to Railroad tracks - a grass 5.8 climb up Haystack and a 10 minute approach from our camp. The climb was ok, but the best part was that we were climbing.
photo 3 - Coming up the grassy cracks on Railroad Tracks
photo 4 - Deep Lake from the top of Haystack.
We didn't get off quite in time however and it began raining again. The rain wasn't too bad and we easily descended the Grassy Goat Trail back to camp.
photo 5 - Descending the damp Grassy Goat Trail.
photo 6 - Mountain Haystack
photo 7 - No I don't want to get up and cook in the rain, and no I don't think this is why my hat is so trashed.