Wow, that was an impressive first day. By my calculations, 14.3 miles, 6511 gain, 4961 loss, net 1550 gain.
That's a serious hike.
12# does seem like a lot of food. I'm thinking that included the bear cannister?
Ken, I ran the first day on Topo! as well, and came up with 1000' less gain and loss. But those numbers are still high.
Looking at the map, doing it manually, to the nearest 100', I come out with a 3400' gain and 1900' loss. The day felt more like that.
The HST to Bear Paw is a gentle trail, and follows the contours pretty well. I think in this case, the trail on the map (and our tracing it on Topo!) crosses more contours than the actual trail does. Every time the trace crosses a contour, Topo! must add 40' to the profile.
When I left Bear Paw, I wasn't fully aware of what lay ahead. Bear Paw is 7700', the trail drops to 7400' at Lone Pine Creek footbridge. Up 400', down 200', then up 600 to upper Hamilton Lake. So even though it was only a 500' climb, total elevation for that part was 1000'.
