Trail Day 58: Tentsite (mile 862.3) to 1.3 miles on the trail to Vermillion Valley Resort

17.7 PCT miles

It was another cold morning at 10,000 ft. Our task for this morning was to cross Seldon Pass. Reports from southbounders was that the pass wasn't so bad, so we were cautiously optimistic.

We had done most of the elevation gain last night, so the trail wasn't so bad heading to the pass. We were greeted by a potentially tricky water crossing from an overflowing lake, but were able to find a series of logs and boulders to easily get across.

Morning water crossing.

From there on out, it was a constant transition between snow patch and exposed trail.  You can tell the melt is in full effect because the footprints in the snow patches did not always line up with the exposed trail.  It lead us in the wrong direction at least once.

View on the way to Seldon Pass.

The pass itself came up quickly and unexpectedly. There were no huge snowfields, no steep switchbacks,  and no scary traverses. It just kind of appeared.

Taco Slap and Phoenix approaching Seldon Pass. 

Seldon Pass looking back at the approach. 

Seldon Pass looking at the descent.

The descent wasn't so bad either, except for the very first part. There was a glissade chute down to the trail after an initial descent. One member of our party did an accidental glissade before the chute, but thankfully didn't get hurt. The rest of the two miles of snowfield was so gradual, that it was incredibly easy to walk. I don't think I would have described two miles of snowfield as “easy” a week and a half ago, but we have been through some challenging conditions lately.

The scenery after Seldon Pass. 

After the snowfield we kept heading down through pine treees, granite, and meadows. On the way down we bumped into a southbounder who had some good news for us.  The ferry at Edison Lake  (that takes you to Vermillion Valley Resort) was running. It also saves about 6 miles of walking around the lake. If we kept a good pace we could make the 4:45 pm ferry and get beers and a restaurant meal tonight.

Coming down from Seldon.

Meadow after Seldom Pass.

We adopted a quick pace downhill until we came to another famous PCT water crossing, Bear Creek. As expected, it was raging at the crossing itself, but we had heard from several people that there was a log downstream that was crossable.

Pullout and Songbeard at opposite sides of the PCT crossing of Bear Creek.

We headed downstream and crossed to an island through knee deep water. We found the log a little further down.  It wasnt just a log, it was an uprooted tree, branches and all. The majority of the tree was pretty wide, but to get to the tree you had to cross a smaller,  less steady log. We carefully crossed and made it to the other side.

Log crossing of Bear Creek.

Then we continued our pace through mosquito infested forest,  crossing two swift streams that fed into Bear Creek. Further down the way we stopped at some boulders for lunch.  During lunch,  Songbeard discovered  that ferry to Vermillion Valley Resort cost $23 round trip,  a stiff fee for a thru hiker. We decided to camp at the trail  junction to VVR and walk along the lake in the morning.

We ended up taking an extended lunch/nap period instead of rushing to catch the ferry. The trail continued along Bear Creek for quite some time before going uphill.  

A nice day for a nap.

Taco Slap and Phoenix would wait for me to catch up every so often.  At one point they declared they came up with a trail name for me, Snapper. It is because I am taking pictures all the time and because my educational background is in marine biology. The guys still didn't see what was wrong with Shark Week. The women,  however,  knew right away that shark week is slang for a women’s "time of the month."

The trail went annoyingly uphill,  only to switchback steeply downhill. Those switchbacks were annoying and seemingly never ending. They literally went on for miles.

Eventually we got to the junction of the PCT and the trail to VVR. We took the trail 1.3 miles  to the camping area near where the ferry would pick people up.

The trail to VVR.

There was a boy scout troop nearby that had been fishing and talking to Dragonfly. They invited us to their campsite to share the fish they were about to cook.

Since I don't eat fish, I attempted to eat near the fire circle.  The mosquitos were way too bad. It didn't matter how much deet or deet-alternative I had on, I still got swarmed.  They were even landing on my JetBoil stove. I went into the safety of my tent to finish dinner, even through I know it is a “no-no” while camping.

The swarm of mosquitos followed me to my tent, but I managed to sneak in without any follwing me. Instead,  I saw several mosquitos get stuck between the tent mesh and the rain fly.

I finished dinner,  then put everything in my bear can and stuck it in between some logs and hung out in my tent t he rest of the nifht.