Miles: 7.9 

Total Trail Miles: 832.2 

Ascent/Descent: 903/1159 ft 

Start Time: 03:40 

End Time: 11:40 

Temperature: 9°C (48°F)

Each morning my toe gets worse, more swollen, more blue and black, and harder to fit into my boot. My trail runners were soaking though, as were my sealskins so I had no choice but to put on the boots. I took more Ibuprofen and Tylenol and hoped that would dull it. The combination of downhill, icy sun cups, clambering over fallen trees and rocks and going from patches of dry trail to snow banks was the worst combination and I spent the first few hours walking slowing, wincing at almost every step with some frequent tears silently rolling down my face. Luckily we only had to go 8 miles today to the Bishop Pass trailhead. We stopped for breakfast at the bottom of the downhill and I began to dry out my trail runners and sealskins as the sun rose, I swapped out as soon as they were dry enough. Beer Slide gave me a string painkiller that he has left over from his operation which helped take the edge off although the pain was still there. The uphill was a little easier though and we made it to camp by 11:45 - we spotted a locked up ranger station cabin and in front of it was a big dry patch where we could dry camp. We set set and lazed in the sun and i aired my toe. 2 cross country skiers showed up and one was the boyfriend of the park ranger so they had come out to set up the cabin for her as she was coming out next week.