Mile 744.5 Lone Pine to mile 906.5 Reds Meadow/Mammoth Lakes

I awoke to the sight of bright flashes accompanied by the sound of distant thunder! I scurried out of my tent and made sure that I had battened down the hatches. All seemed well as re-entered my tent fortresses and settled back in to my sleeping bag slumber. The sounds of soft rain drops quickly carried me off to dream land…sigh. Then, with a large crash and boom, I came flying back into this world…I had been awakened by the loudest thunder I had ever heard. I immediately realized that the alpine lake I was camped beside was really up high in elevation…10,500 feet or so! Perhaps this had not been the best choice. The lake was so beautiful that I had decided to stop hiking for the day at only 6:pm. Two hours of prime hiking time were exchanged for swimming! It was amazing! But now…not so much. There had been thunder storms every day in the Sierras so far but nothing quite like this. It was about 11:pm when I realized that this storm would not pass quickly. I turned off my electronics and curled up into a ball on my sleeping pad so that no part of me touched the ground. Lightening was beginning to strike all around and very, very close…I could feel it in the earth. I counted “one 1,000, two 1,000” CRASH!!! I couldn’t even count to three! My teeth chattered and my heart raced uncontrollably. I then figured my heart, beating a million times a minute would attract lightening to me…so I tried to breathe and slow it down. Wind blew in every direction and my tent became under attack by the loudest and longest hail storm ever. It went on for hours!!! After the thunder and lightning passed at about 4:am it continued to rain on into the morning…I slept not but a wink…but I and my tent, though beyond wet and beaten, survived! What a night! The following night I would sleep at 9,000 feet and listen to the thunder from a far…yes! But with all the thunder storms there had been…