Day 49 - Silver Pass

Wednesday June 3

I was prone to accidents today. I slipped on a wet rock, cut my hand and ended up in the creek. Twice I tried to rock-hop over streams, lost my balance, and ended up knee deep in the water. One of those times my leg hit a sharp rock, tore my pants and skinned my leg. It's not pretty.

The day started with a wonderful breakfast at the Vermillion Valley Resort. Willy and I paid our bills and then got a boat ride across Lake Edison. It saved us about two hours of hiking.

We got back to the PCT by 9:30 and headed towards Silver Pass, about six miles away. Silver Pass is another major pass for through hikers as it is just under 11,000 feet. 

On the way up, there were amazing views of the surrounding mountains. The trail followed Silver Pass Creek, which flows from Silver Pass Lake. Halfway  up we met two younger guys coming down from the pass. They warned us that the snowfields on the north side of the pass were prone to a lot of post holing. That did not make us very happy. 

The hike up to Silver Pass is frustrating because there are several false summits. We arrived at the pass at 1:30. There were several other hikers taking a break at the top.

One guy had a really nice digital SLR camera and expensive telephoto lens. He had dropped them into a creek and water got into everything. I guess I wasn't the only one having a bad day!

On the way down we managed to avoid most of the post holing, much to our relief. If you look closely, you can see the tracks coming down from the pass.

The trail went down into the valley and then headed up again, following Fish Creek. There were wonderful waterfalls.

When we passed by Lake Virginia, there was a great view of the mountains to the south.

We finally stopped for the day and found our campsites near Purple Lake. Willy gave me some antibiotic cream to put on the scrape on my leg. Tomorrow we hope to hike to Reds Meadow and make our way into Mammoth for more resupply and rest. Willy is meeting some friends. Also we hear that rain is forecast for the next few days. 

I am camped at PCT mile 893.5. The elevation here is 9,916 feet.