Woke to an increasingly smokey morning, and rushed the last 6-7 miles to the head of Lake Thomas Edison to try and call Libby before she left to meet me. I thought it might be sort of a drag to hang out all weekend in the smoke, and also realized that if we delayed our meeting just one day we could meet in Mammoth Lakes, where there might be a bit more to do. Visibility was down to just a few miles as I dropped steep down into Mono Creek and walked out the dry lake bed to where hikers can catch a boat ride across to Vermilion Valley Resort near the dam. It was so smokey I could hardly get the full appreciation for the red cliffs overhead which give the resort its name.
While waiting for the boat I stripped and jumped in the lake, the early morning already thick and hot. After the 20 minute ride with a couple JMT hikers we piled in an old rattling van for the last half mile to VVR. There I was able to reach Libby on the $2/minute satellite phone and change plans to meet in Mammoth. Now I had another about 30 miles to cover, so just took a few hours to have a breakfast burrito and complimentary beer and then a huckleberry milkshake, sort my food resupply, then get back on the trail again.
I opted to take the Goodale Pass trail back to the PCT, which leaves right from VVR and skips the crossing of Silver Pass, which I had already done on a previous trip. The trail climbed up along Graveyard Creek, near one of the old Wilderness Orientation routes I had done, then began the climb up Goodale. This pass was magical, with the trail near the top a maze between pink granite outcrops, then the pass itself a big flat the size of a football field with a few forbs here and there in the dry sand.
I talked with Splashback and Nell a bit at the pass then dropped down past a basin where the wind and water tumbling between small lakes made a sound like some sort of factory, then climbed back to the PCT just north of Silver Pass.
Again wanting to cover as many miles tonight as I could, I decided a way to filter water while I walked to save time. The trail contoured down into Tully Hole, a deep canyon home to Fish Valley Creek and plenty of mosquitoes. The steep climb out of Tully Hole was beautiful, with the setting sun lighting the entire Silver Divide and the area around Red and white pass in a soft but rich red glow through the smokey haze. Near the top of the climb about 20 Clark's Nutcrackers were mobbing what I think was a Redtailed Hawk.
I passed Virginia Lake then started the small descent to Pure lake, passing an area where a whole peak seems to have crashed down with terrible force into a little fully next to the trail. I don't know when this happened, but it looks recent.
Finally to Purple Lake after dark, finding a slanted little place to sleep, and eating a quick dinner of canned sardines and crackers.
Birds:
Hermit Thrush
Oregon Junco
Brown Creeper
Hammond's Flycatcher
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Mountain Quail
Western Wood-pewee
Wilson's Warbler
Warbling Vireo
Northern Flicker
Clark's Nutcracker
Mountain Chickadee
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Bald Eagle
Great Blue Heron
Stellar's Jay
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