Our walk along the continental divide is out. We all woke to rain and high winds. I was very glad I'd pitched the doily down valley from a small grove of trees, as it was hardly rattled at all during the night. The other tents were much more exposed to the wind.

In a light drizzle we packed up and donned rain jackets and rain covers for our packets. We worked our way back down to the Floyd Wilson Meadows, passing one group camped near the confluence of streams. Crossing the rain slick logs over each stream was unnerving, but we all made it without falling.

I spotted a female moose across the stream, for our first moose sighting of the trip. Then as we traversed the wide open meadow, Tim B spotted a male moose out grazing. I wasn't sure it wasn't a log at first, but he was proved correct as it looked up and stared at us.

The rain increased as we reached Big Meadows and really began to come down after we left the meadows. For the most part we all walked in silence, at our own pace. Every 45 minutes or an hour the leader would stop and we'd all group up again for a break and a snack. But nobody wanted to stop for too long and get chilled. Tim D and I talked about this being "perfect" hypothermia weather: rainy, windy, 50 degrees. We tried keeping an eye on everyone.

Parts of the trail filled with water and the rocky ground was often invisible under a few inches of murky water. I slipped on one rock and kicked a trekking pole ahead as I went down. I paused long enough to wonder if I was exhibiting a lack of coordination due to hypothermia, or just a victim of slick rocks. At least no one saw me go down, and at the hand constructed bridge over the Dinwoody, I put on another layer.

Just below the switchbacks we would need to climb to Star Lake, we saw our second llama pack train, and the first people we'd seen since the early morning. Luckily, the sun came out in patches and we all warmed up on the climb up past Honeymoon Lake to the top of the switchbacks. After a short break we pushed on the last 10 or 15 minutes to Star Lake.

Strong winds and intermittent drizzle kept us from being perfectly happy with the improving weather. We all had dinner separately, but as the evening cleared up more, Tim D started gathering firewood, partly to get moving and generate some heat. Plenty of white gas later and we had started a small blaze. Cheryl and I tended the fire, drying out larger pieces of wood and tossing on more kindling. She convinced Tim B and Helen to come out and enjoy the fire with us.