"Pumice Butte -> Birthday Peak -> Red Cones Essentially an active rest day. Most of the day’s participants started at Horseshoe Lake Trailhead due to Mason giving them bad advice. We met up precisely as our routes merged along the PCT. I struggled with the soft cinders on the off trail portion. I labored up the final slopes of Pumice Butte, and I was rewarded with an amazing view. We had so many people on the summit at once. I ate and drank quite a bit, and I resigned to return to the trailhead and leave it as an easy day. On my walk back through the forest, I saw Bob, David and Tom B, and their company convinced me to climb Birthday Peak, which Andy Smatko named after climbing it on his 70th birthday. Then we continued over rough cross country to the Red Cones. These were very cool and we climbed both. A warm dusty trail took us back down to Red’s Meadow where we finished in the early afternoon. Afterwards we had our Sierra Challenge Cook-off. My giant tritip got 2nd place, but that’s because voting partially took place before the meat was ready." — seancasserly • Aug 11, 2024