June 12th, 2022 by Jon
We woke up in mushroom city, the camping area at VVR, around 6:00, but didn’t have anything to do, so we dozed until about 6:45. We got up then because breakfast started at 7:00, and we wanted to get our order in so we could eat and then get our stuff ready for our 9:00 am boat ride. We went inside the store, ordered breakfast, and then settled our tab. This place was expensive but amazing. If anyone reading this is trying to decide whether to go, absolutely do it. It was incredible. The staff were so kind and loved having hikers, and it’s worth the extra miles/money to go here.
For breakfast, I had the pancake combo, and literally everyone else in our group got the breakfast burrito. When our food came, my plate had a lot more on it which was fantastic. We had coffee and OJ, sat, and zoned out on our phones for a bit because we could. Everything tasted really good, and we were happy to have so much food. Around 8:00, we got up, packed our stuff, and finished getting our food put into our bear cans for the next stretch to Mammoth.
Soon, a truck rolled up and called out for the boat ride people to come with him, so we threw our stuff in and hopped inside. We rolled down to the lake, which was at 25% capacity, so they couldn’t take their larger boat. Instead, we would be in the small boats. Due to some miscommunication between the front desk staff and the people actually driving the boats, they didn’t have enough space for everyone they said could ride. Wilco very graciously offered to go on the next run. Singsong and Biscuit went in the extra small boat, while Missile Toe, 2 random dudes, and I went in the small boat. Off we went, zooming across the lake. It was a fine ride, though as we crossed, the wind picked up and we were definitely getting pushed around in the water. We hit the shore on the other side after 20 minutes or so, and the ladies arrived 5 minutes after that. There were three hikers waiting to go to VVR, so they took our spots, and the captain mentioned he didn’t know if they would do more rides until the wind died down.
Feeling sad that Wilco wasn’t with us, and hoping he would catch us soon, we hiked along the beach to where the dock usually was when the lake is at a normal level. We took a side trail up from there, around another mile and a half, to get back to the PCT. The trail was fairly flat with a little uphill at the end through marshes and meadows. Soon, we heard the roar of Bear Creek, which empties into the lake, and it was a sign we were close to the PCT. We arrived at the PCT trail junction, and we began our hike for real again, making actual PCT miles. The trail followed Bear Creek along a ridge that was slowly winding its way uphill. Eventually, we had to cross the creek and found it about 30 feet wide and knee-deep. There were comments about a fallen tree that would make a good crossing point just upstream, so we went to check that out.
After about 5 minutes of searching, we found it! The tree was very large and very wide, and was super easy to cross over. We hiked over a small ridge before finding ourselves back on the PCT, ready for a long climb. This morning, we would climb Silver Pass and enter yet another valley on the other side. We climbed a rocky trail that entered small patches of trees periodically, but for the most part, we stayed near Bear Creek. We noticed 3 or 4 different groups of southbound hikers and enjoyed looking at how huge their packs looked. We also definitely noticed how clean their gear and clothes were. We had taken a shower and done laundry yesterday at VVR, but somehow a thin layer of grime still seems to cling to us.
There were many small creek crossings that we had to rock skip across, and on one of them, Singsong and I both managed to get one of our feet wet because the last rock jump was kind of a stretch. We climbed some rocky stairs built into the side of a massive boulder before walking along a flat ridge with excellent views for a while. I kept taking pictures of the valley far below. We turned a corner after that and walked along it for a while, crossed another stream, and then climbed again, noticing that we were definitely starting to leave the tree line.
We came across Biscuit and Missile, who had stopped to take a break on some rocks. We had lunch together and chilled for a while. It’s not really two full days of hiking to Mammoth; it’s more like a day and a half, so we knew we didn’t have to really push today in order to get in striking distance of town tomorrow. We kept hiking on and came out of the tree line onto a rocky plateau. We walked along a ridge with lakes on either side. We had noticed during lunch that the clouds were moving fast, and once up on the plateau, we found out just how windy it was.
The wind struck us in the back like a hammer, blasting us forward hard enough that I could practically lean back into it. At one point, I stepped on a loose rock, and the wind knocked me off balance; I fell onto my hands and knees, which, with a pack on, did not feel great. Singsong was close behind me, and we did the rest of the pass together because we also had to climb up a few slick/mildly steep ice fields. The clouds grew darker, and the wind seemed to pick up, so we put a little pep in our step to try to get over this thing in case the weather got worse. We reached the pass and realized there was just a cliff on the other side, so we had to climb a little more around the side to get up and over, then down and around to the bottom of the cliff so we could continue our descent. We caught Biscuit and Missile at the top of the mountain, and the 4 of us speed-hiked the next mile or two so we could get below tree line, because apparently there was now a 30% chance of thunderstorms. Being in high places with lighting is no bueno.
We passed by some very pretty lakes and had to dodge flooded trails from all the melting snow. Thankfully, wherever there was snow, there were also rocks we could climb across instead of going through it, since it was super wet and slushy. The trail wound through pine trees and rock, leading us lower and lower along switchbacks until we reached a meadow about halfway down the climb we were doing. We took a break there to grab some water before continuing on. We had reached another medium-sized creek and hiked along it as it fell further down the valley. The trees were very thick here, and we were in a sort of canyon that meant we really couldn’t see anything but the trail.
When we reached the bottom, we hiked around a corner and saw a group of people sitting beside the trail. It was Raccoon, Gumby, and Moon! We hadn’t seen them since Rae Lakes near Glen Pass 5 days ago. They got ahead of us because they ate trout they caught every day, which let them stretch their food to Mammoth and skip VVR. We chatted with them for a while before pushing on to start our next climb. We crossed a huge bridge over a raging creek that was gushing down a waterfall just below the bridge. Once across, we turned north and walked uphill through pine trees for a while. It was very peaceful.
We noticed the creek had become calmer, realized the trail had flattened out, and found ourselves next to a gorgeous meadow with beautiful mountains in the background. We finally broke away from that little creek and climbed about 12 switchbacks to get up on top of a ridge. The trail became sandy and dry, and we noticed a small ledge about 50 feet off-trail, so we went to check it out. We found a perfect little clearing surrounded by trees where the wind was noticeably less intense. We decided to call it for the day and hoped that the shorter mile days would give Wilco time to catch us so we could walk into Mammoth together tomorrow. It’s about 12 miles to the trail junction and then 3.5 miles on a side trail to get down into town.
Missile and I went to go get water while Biscuit and Singsong began setting up camp. We found a small lake a quarter mile away and returned with plenty of water for everyone. Raccoon, Gumby, Moon, Nugget, and Veto all joined us for dinner, and then they planned to push a little further afterward. Partway through, Wilco showed up! Apparently, they had to stop all boat rides due to the wind, so he had to hike 4 extra miles. We all groaned on his behalf, but he said it was flat, and he knocked it out pretty quickly. Still, that’s a huge bummer. Thankfully, we have an easy 15 or 16 miles to get to town, and there is more downhill than uphill. We plan to take a double zero and recover from what has been an amazing and difficult section of the trail. Thankfully, we found a cool Airbnb for all to stay at right in the middle of town.
Cool!