Central California
Starting: Section H15 - Vermillion Valley Resort
Ending:  Section H16 - Purple Lake

Caught the 9:00 am ferry out of VVR. Somehow my tab had reached $81 & it was time to leave. Had a nice evenly paced hike to Silver pass. The several Mono Creek crossings were flowing fast & hard, but were nothing compared to Evolution Creek.

A mile from the top of the pass we found Jason, who had skipped VVR, asleep under the warm sun. The three of us took a short rest and continued on. The trail was soon under snow but we could see the pass and took a straight line up to it. We reached the pass in under an hour & saw that we had another mile of snow work during the descent. Overall, a very easy pass.

Shortly before Virginia lake we finally caught up to Nitro, Nightingale, & Bono, hikers we had been following for a while. Really great people. The 6 of us continued on to Purple Lake where we camped on the shore. Nightingale and I grabbed our poles and headed to the lake. Best fishing of the trip- caught 2 12-inch rainbows.

The day concluded with us sitting around a rare campfire, talking late into the night...