Isn’t the purple lake purple? – The walk

VVR was a great stop. This morning I ate half a breakfast burrito and made the other half for lunch. We decided to take Goodale Pass to rejoin the PCT. There wasn’t much FarOut commentary on this route, other than there are a ton of explosions. We take advantage of our opportunities and keep walking.

The first part of the trail passed through a burned area. There was a ranger walking with a trail maintenance crew. He reviewed our permits and when I asked him about the trail conditions, he said that they had cut down over 200 trees and only 3 were down on the trail. I thanked him for all the hard work they had been doing and told him I would update FarOut’s comments. Then we heard a loud crack and another tree fell. So do the 4 purges that are left along the way.

I nervously continued across the burn scar and picked up the pace. The burned area quickly turned into a nice meadow and a nice climb along a stream. It was a long climb, but this morning’s breakfast burrito really boosted the climb. I tried to run up the pass to treat myself to the second half of my burrito for lunch at the top.

As the Goodale Pass Trail met the PCT again, we came to a series of stunning lakes. The first was Lake Virginia, which was super serene. There were a few hikers who carefully took off their boots to cross and looked at us strangely as we crossed the water with our trail shoes and socks on. I gave up trying to keep my feet dry in this section. Fortunately, the combination of trail shoes and very sturdy socks dries fairly quickly.

We were planning on camping at Virginia Lake, but we were all feeling good, so we went a couple more miles to Purple Lake. I’ve been backpacking in this area before and I have the cutest photo of my dog ​​sunbathing in the same spot where I’ll be camping tonight.

The kids and I set up camp and walked to the lake for a sunset dip. But it didn’t last long because the water was freezing and the sun was setting quickly.

Today we covered 5,300 feet of elevation gain and more than 20 miles through the Sierra. I finally feel strong again. Bubbles and I have been joking that we left our trail sections in Kennedy Meadows, but today we finally got them back. Just in time for tomorrow to rest again in Mammoth.

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