Day 14 - Two For The Price of One!

After our early night, we were all up bright and early, and Traveler was the first to leave at 6:10 a.m. I left 5 minutes later, and Woody and Huckleberry were a few minutes behind. As per the previous afternoon, the trail did nothing but climb, and I thought to myself, “only 2 1/2 miles to the top.” I was feeling surprisingly strong this morning and pushed on. It was a lovely temperature to walk, and the sun was only just beginning to creep down the mountains. There were no other hikers around, or so I thought, but then I caught sight of two hikers coming up a trail to my left. The first hiker was well ahead of the second, and I was able to jump on the trail just ahead of him. It turned out they were a husband and wife team and had camped at the small lake below the pass, hence the trail they were heading up. I managed to make the pass without stopping, and that’s the first time this trip.

I joined Traveler, and we had about a 20-minute wait for Woody and Huckleberry, as they had been to a lake to get water.

We now had about a 1 1/2 mile trek to a small lake where we intended to have breakfast. It was all downhill, but before we went downhill, we had a short, sharp climb ahead of us. The downward section was almost as difficult as the uphill, but we persevered and eventually found our breakfast spot. We were trying to cram some miles in today, and breakfast was short and sweet, although Woody and I were able to fit in our customary coffee!

It was time to leave, and Traveler and Huckleberry set off on the next leg, which was 3 1/2 miles to our lunch site.

Woody and I set off, and down the hill we went. It was a bit of a mixed bag in terms of footing, as sometimes the trail was gnarly with big rocks and scree, and other times it was lovely walking on a clean path. We made pretty good time as well. We eventually came to a bridge where the river was cascading down the mountainside, and after taking several photos, we were on our way again. This time, we had a great trail that followed the rushing waters and went up and up. I was feeling pretty strong, just like first thing this morning, and I soon rolled into camp where Traveler and Huckleberry were waiting, and Woody followed me very shortly thereafter.

We had a pleasant lunch by the babbling river, but it was soon time to hit the trail, and this time we were faced with the daunting climb that is Tully Hole. I cannot recall one step that wasn’t up, and the sun had decided to make an appearance, making our task even more arduous. Tully Hole was turning out to be a beast as we pushed higher up the mountain. It became particularly painful whenever we had hikers heading down the hill in the opposite direction. Eventually, we made the top and started to work our way down to the beautiful Virginia Lake, where we ended up getting our feet wet. There were several separate water crossings that we had to navigate, and we got some pointers from the San Diego Girl Scouts, whom we had met earlier that morning. Unfortunately, the last crossing did both Woody and me in, and we ended up with wet feet. After leaving Virginia Lake, we had to climb up and then down to Purple Lake, where we had a chance to get fresh water. After a brief rest, Woody and I left Purple Lake and were faced with a series of switchbacks before hitting a long uphill climb across the face of the mountain. There is an excellent picture below that will give you a sense of what we had to endure. On and on we pushed, and with every step, we were whittling away at the 3.3 miles that separate Purple Lake from our destination at Duck Creek. Eventually, we started down, and before we knew it, we were at our campsite. Upon tabulating the numbers, we had polished off the balance of the climb up Silver Pass, knocked off Tully Hole, and completed the climb from Purple Lake to Duck Creek. In all, we had climbed 3,330 feet over 13.4 miles, and in a little under 11 hours. I was ravenous and ate a meal that was meant for two, and was in bed shortly after creating this blog.