Short easy day today!! Slept in a bit and took our time eating breakfast and packing up.
 |
| Trail kitchen, I loved the simplicity of it |
We headed out with the Jackies and stopped for lunch at Purple Lake, which was very pretty with crystal clear water. We had a lovely lounging lunch on the shoreline enjoying the great views.
 |
| Purple Lake |
 |
| Purple Lake |
We continued on and up to Lake Virginia with pretty views of the Sierra range all day: rocky and beautiful. As we approached the final uphill to Lake Virginia we passed the Opposite Couple. The man was having fun and thought the JMT was "great!", his wife was miserable and asked "why are we doing this??". Thankfully I was in my usual position as the caboose and I missed most of the conversation with these people. The Jackies both looked at me funny and were glad to have an excuse to move on once I caught up to them! The trail turned to sand as we approached the lake and we took the right fork, which was the opposite direction that the Opposite Couple were headed in. We did not want to camp near them!
 |
| Endless beauty |
It was super windy and therefore cold for the first few hours at Lake Virginia. We found some nice sites where we set up shop, then it was to the lake for water and laundry! The wind helped to dry our clothes much faster!
 |
| Lake Virginia |
 |
| Dinner time! I lucked out and found a lounge spot with a back rest! |
 |
| Writing in my trail journal |
We enjoyed making it to camp earlier than normal and had fun hanging out and just chatting. We made an early, leisurely dinner which was very enjoyable! I happened to score big and found a "seat" with a backrest right next to a rock table!! A "seat with a backrest" is a rare finding! It felt so good to lounge back and eat my super delicious chicken teriyaki with rice! I had been looking forward to it all day! Yum!
The alpineglow we saw at Lake Virginia would turn out to be some of the best we'd see on trail! Starting with a pale yellow and developing into orange and finally red. Wow! The color changes happened in less than 15 minutes, and once the sun dips below the other mountains, the alpineglow disappears completely. Really glad we got to see it!
From my trail journal:
"Glad today was a shorter day, I'm still a bit tired from yesterday. It's very beautiful here, so lucky to be here and wake up in a beautiful place, then sleep in a new beautiful place- every day!! Talk about living the dream!
Been having fun hanging with the Jackies!"
 |
| Camp at Lake Virginia, elevation 10,354 feet |
No comments:
Post a Comment