We had originally scheduled our Cottonwood Lakes trip for three nights, since Chris expected at least one full day would be watching Carter fish the different lakes throughout the basin. However, Carter and Dani both had things to do on Monday, and we decided to spend just two nights in the backcountry – this left only Saturday for a day trip, and Carter wanted to hike rather than fish. We talked about a few options on Friday night and settled on trying an ascent of New Army Pass – once there, we could head west, south, and east around the top of the bowl to Cirque Peak, or we could make our way north east to Army Pass and loop back to our camp via Lake 4. And so, Saturday morning broke with a beautiful sunrise and a steady stream of dayhikers coming up the trail past our tents, many of them speaking in full voice even in the predawn hours, and we figured most of them were headed to Mt. Langley. After a leisurely breakfast, we packed our day packs with water and snacks and headed west up the trail. Past Lake 2, the trail begins climbing moderately up a series of benches, upon the first of which lies Long Lake at about 11,150′, followed by High Lake at 11,500′ a couple of benches further – Chris was quite sore from the previous day and committed to going as far as High Lake, but conceded that the pass beyond at 12,300′ might be more than he could manage. The going at first was easy enough as we followed the trail through glacial moraine up to Long Lake – Carter threw a few lines in here but couldn’t get any bites. On the next bench, we found a broad expanse of swampy ground that would probably be quite buggy in early season – no bugs today (or the whole weekend, for that matter), and Chris followed the trail west and then north around the bog while Dani and Carter made their way more directly west up to the next bench. There we found High Lake, well above timberline with its surface rippling in the breeze. Carter could see foot-long fish swimming below, but again he couldn’t hook any of them. We could see several sets of hikers on the switchbacks above us, which gave us some indication of where the trail was routed, and Chris decided to get a head start going further up – it wasn’t probably ten minutes before Mr. and Mrs. Fitness had finished their fishing and passed him like he was standing still – Chris wouldn’t see them again until the top of the pass. Above High Lake, the trail makes about a dozen switchbacks, each of which gets shorter the higher it goes, and the gradient is moderate enough that Chris felt really good the whole way up – carrying a full pack up this trail might be a different matter, but it was a really nice hike with a light load. The views, even if limited by terrain to just the south and east, only got better as Chris gained elevation – once over the crest, the north view opened up as the enormous mass of Mt. Langley dominated the skyline in that direction, making Mt. Whitney to the northwest look diminutive by comparison. West of the pass, the Sierra crest rolls off in an open rounded hillside – after donning our jackets in the chilly breeze and munching some snacks, we wandered out across the rocks to get a better view of the Castle Fire, the smoke from which now towered above us to the west. We had by this time decided to forego Cirque Peak in favor of returning via Army Pass, but Carter found himself hiking back southward to the 12,500′ level above the bowl we’d ascended – while Chris stayed some 150′ below, Dani joined him at the top, and it was funny that Chris could hear their voices even though they were out of sight and over a quarter mile away. After a while, the youngsters returned, and we made our way cross country down the broad slope to Army Pass about a half mile distant and 200′ below to the northeast. There were numerous people in the area – backpackers climbing up to New Army Pass from the west, dayhikers returning from Mt. Langley, others like us descending to Army Pass, and still others coming up Army Pass from the east. We paused at the top of Army Pass to consider our route from here – we’d follow the old, now-unmaintained trail eastward along a narrow ramp across the top of some cliffs, then lose considerable elevation through a series of switchbacks leading northward down to the lake before traversing east along Lake 4’s north shore. The trail was easy enough to follow, but its surface was very rocky and loose all the way down – Chris pronounced it one of the worst trails he’s ever walked, and he pitied those few who passed us going up, although most weren’t carrying big loads. We eventually got down to the lake level, and Carter and Dani found a great foot-soaking rock – we all cooled our feet in the chilly water. Before resuming our walk eastward, we first smelled smoke before really noticing how dirty the air had become – apparently the wind had shifted, and the whole basin took on a smoky character that would last the rest of the evening. Walking again, we stopped briefly to look further up the basin across Lake 5, then turned southward to Lake 3’s north end before ascending to a low ridge beyond it that was bordered on the east by an enormous meadow. Once atop this ridge, the walking was very easy to complete our loop – we followed the trail southeast (the extension of the northern trail fork we had turned away from the day before), and then turned off to the south to travel cross country between Lakes 1 and 2 to return to camp. Upon arrival, Carter noticed that the bag of cleansing wipes he’d left in a tree was no longer there – a short while later, we discovered a note from a ranger who’d stopped by our camp about an hour after we’d left that morning. She had observed several deficiencies in our smellable-storage practices, including Carter’s hanging bag, which she placed inside Chris’ bear canister for safety – presumably, we could have been ticketed, so it was nice to escape with only the advisory notice (actually, it’s great to see rangers out on patrol – their service is much appreciated, especially on busy holiday weekends like this one). The rest of the day was spent cleaning up and cooking dinner before a smoky sunset – the breeze also stiffened, and the resulting chill forced us out of the cold and into our warm sleeping bags by 7:30pm. Despite the wind, our second night was much quieter than the first, and by early morning the air was still again.