Day 56 – Wednesday, July 19

PCT Mile 878.8 Vermilion Valley Resort to PCT Mile 893.6 Purple lLake
Day Total: 14.8 miles

We got up early to eat a hot breakfast in the VVR restaurant before catching the 9 a.m. ferry back to the trail.

We had taken down the tent, packed our packs and were seated in the restaurant by 7:30, and still almost missed the ferry! It was the slowest breakfast ever.

The poor waitress somehow lost our orders and it took her an hour to realize? Anyway, she offered us free slices of apple pie, and we said thank you. We rushed to get to the ferry (the only other ferry leaves at 4 p.m.), and barely made it. Phew!

After getting off the ferry, we had to put on our shoes, get water, and reorganize the things that we haphazardly threw in our bags in the rush to get on the ferry. Eventually we got moving and it was all uphill.

We had a couple creek crossings in the morning, including one cool spot where a big waterfall dumped on the trail. It was seven miles up and over Silver Pass, the last mile or so over snow. We caught Papa Bear, Trailblazer and Caboose near the top and enjoyed lunch with panoramic views.

On the way down we found a section with awesome long glissade, and the five of us all slid down the chute on our bums. I got going so fast that I actually got some air!

We crossed a few more small creeks going down and once again the trail often had water running down it. There is a lot of water in the Sierras.

In the last few miles tonight, we came across Virginia Lake, which was absolutely beautiful.

The trail crossed an outlet that we had to wade through. When we came around a bend, we saw Caboose standing on the last dry rock looking out over the water he had to cross. There was nowhere for him to move without getting wet. The path of rocks he was hopping on ended short of the far bank.

Then, Papa Bear, who hikes in sandals, crossed the water, found some big rocks and built a next step for Caboose. Caboose crossed without getting his feet wet. Now that's teamwork!

We all camped by Purple Lake, and when we arrived Trailblazer had made a fire to keep the mosquitos away. It was a nice end to a fun day.