Which Way Is North?

PCT Mile 893.6 Purple Lake to PCT Mile 903.9 Mammoth Lakes  Day Total: 10.3 PCT Miles (Plus 3.5 Mammoth Pass Trail) We were the last ones to get moving this morning, as everyone else was up early to get into town. We had a brief climb up away from Purple Lake before the trail took us down toward Mammoth Lakes. Normally, hikers can catch a bus from Reds Meadow ,which is right on the PCT at mile 906, into the town of Mammoth Lakes, but the road the bus travels on isn't open yet because of snow damage from the winter. Instead we left from PCT mile 903 and took a 3.5 mile side trail over Mammoth Pass to a busy trailhead at Horseshoe Lake. (Note: We found out later that the Reds Meadow shuttle opened the next day. Of course it did.) From the trailhead, we took a free trolley to the village of Mammoth Lakes. We got into town and found Papa Bear sitting at an outside table of a Mexican restaurant and we joined him for nachos and tacos. It felt nice to be in town. This ended th...

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 la...

PCT Mile 864.2 to PCT Mile 878.8 Vermilion Valley Resort Day Total: 14.6 Miles We hiked the mile or so up to Seldon Pass this morning and remarked how different it was than the other high passes we've gone over. The most striking difference as the lack of snow. There were just a few small remaining snow fields, a stark difference from Muir Pass two days ago. We had a couple big creek crossings on the way down from the pass. Fortunately, the most dreaded one, Bear Creek, had a huge tree across it. We were hiking quickly to get to Vermilion Valley Ranch by the afternoon, so we could take the ferry across the lake instead of walk a side trail. We try our best to avoid non-PCT miles. We made it to the landing for the Edison Lake Ferry by 4 p.m. and caught up to Trailblazer, Papa Bear and Caboose. We took the ferry across the lake, saving several miles of hiking around it, and arrived at Vermilion Valley Resort . The resort has free camping for PCT and jmt hikers, a little con...

PCT Mile 844.4 To PCT Mile 864.2 Day Total: 19.8 Miles When we woke up a little after 7 this morning, Trailblazer and Papa Bear were gone, and Caboose (named Caboose for being the last one ready to go) was almost packed up. They were all in a hurry to get to the Muir Trail Ranc h. Muir Trail Ranch is a place where many John Muir Trail hikers send resupply packages. They often send themselves more food than they want to carry, and leave some behind. That's where we come in. PCT hikers, who've been on the trail for much longer than the JMTers (who are about 110 miles into the 212-mile trail), are much hungrier. Stephen and I snagged some CLIF Bars, Snickers, tortillas and Pop Tarts from a few JMTers who has sent themselves far too much food. Trailblazer had been there for four hours when we arrived and he had acquired about a week's worth of food from someone who was getting off the JMT. Speaking of the John Muir Trail , which most hike South from Yosemite Valley ...