After the North Glacier Pass trip I took a day off to rest and then went to the Ranger station on Mono lake to get another permit for another week long peakbagging trip. This trip was going to be for the peaks north east of the ones I had just done, and just south of Mono Pass and Mt. Gibbs and Mt. Dana.
The trail up towards Thousand Island lake that I had just taken was closed because or the risk that the dams along the way would break. While not imminent, the trail was closed out of an abundance of caution.
I started out again from the Silver Lake campground and headed up the trail, past Agnew lake and Gem Lake where I found a headlamp abandoned along the trail. I headed around Gem Lake to where Crest Creek flows into it.
From there, I followed the trail to the north, in some places it was washed out and the stream was flowing directly down the trail. Just before Gem Pass, the snow got to the point that I needed my mountaineering boots and instead of going over Gem Pass, I hiked west, staying on the south side of the the east ridge of Blacktop peak.
At some point going up the ridge, my tennis shoes that I had strapped to my pack fell off, I did not realize it until I had reached camp.
I retraced my steps and found in shoe in the darkness but was unable to find the other. In the end I went to sleep and waited for the sun to come up to find my other shoe.