From Dollar Lake, it's an easy 2.6 miles and 400 feet of climbing to the Rae Lakes crossing. We see only a couple people there, in what's supposed to be the Times Square of the Kings Canyon backcountry.
The last 1.5 miles approaching Glen Pass (11978) is steep switchbacks at a brutal 933 ft/mile rate not felt since Bear Ridge. To me this 1,400 foot climb was actually worse than Bear Ridge -- in terms of pure mental anguish if not physical pain. From the shelf below the final ascent, I look -- straight up -- at a bare granite wall, trying to map out where they could possibly route a trail on what amounts to a vertical wall. The two ants at the top, silhouetted against the midday sky, are Erik and Susan. This was the hardest and grandest pass of all. It's enough to make me wish I had brought a better camera. The cruise down into Junction Meadow was a pleasure, with great views all around, particularly of Charlotte Lake far below us on the right.
A mile and a half south of the four-way intersection (Kearsarge Pass to the left, Charlotte Lake to the right), after a short, steep descent into dense forest, we turn off the JMT for good at Lower Vidette Meadow and head to the Junction Meadow (8300).
Junction Meadow, which we apparently had to ourselves, isn't much of a meadow -- narrow and overgrown. But it did have one hell of a campsite. We chose a stock camp that looked as manicured as some Atherton socialite's rose garden, right down to the immaculately mowed lawn. This was a regular stop for trail-building crews and we found many amenities -- a fire pit, shelves for cooking, plenty of firewood. The World's Fattest Marmot (a bruiser who probably tipped the scales at 25 pounds) watched us with a great deal of interest before an unkind word from Erik sent him on his way.
We pitch the tent on a verdant, shaded perch just above roaring Bubbs Creek. With the close-in sheer 4,000-foot granite walls, it's like camping in Yosemite Valley in the shadow of Royal Arches -- minus the crowds, the traffic and the sirens, of course. After being so high for so long and sleeping on stone so many nights (we've spent five of the last six nights sleeping above 10,000) it does feel a tad odd to be so low, 8,300 feet. It's also a luxury to cruise into camp early. How nice to end one of our trail days with a sigh rather than a groan.
Saw four northbound, zero southbound today.
Rae Lakes 
Approach to Glen Pass 
Looking south from Glen Pass
Total mileage: 12
Time out: 9
Time in: 5:50
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