I hiked up out of Vermillion Valley Resort today and took the trail past Lake Thomas A Edison, up Cold Creek and through Graveyard Meadows to Goodale Pass. Just down the other side, I found camp alongside Papoose Lake. Today’s mileage was 10.7 miles, 17.4 km.

When I woke up this morning, the sun was just rising on the camp, nobody else was out of their tent yet. The store wouldn’t open until 7 am, so I made my own coffee and packed up my gear. After the store opened, I went in to order breakfast and see if there was any space on the morning water taxi. The first one was full, and the second one would depart at 10:30 am. Rather than wait, I decided to walk from VVR.

An alternate route over Goodale Pass, instead of Silver Pass would have me rejoin the PCT after about 11 miles, which is virtually the same mileage as the PCT would cover from the ferry wharf to the same junction. I could potentially have taken an hour headstart by leaving before the ferry, but instead I hung around talking with people until the after the ferry departed.

The trail from VVR started just around the corner, and headed into a 5 year old burn zone. All around were bare and blackened trees. A lot of these trees had fallen, but work had recently been completed to clear the trail.

The burn zone lasted for about 5 miles, and took me several hours to cross. Further up the hillside, the trees seemed larger and older, there was more scrubby regrowth underneath too but no new trees emerging yet.

Eventually I emerged into healthy, unburned forest. The trail flattened out and I began to walk alongside Cold Creek. I walked for hours on a very gentle incline, most of the time I was under tree cover, but there was also the occasional small meadow to cross.

As I climbed, the trail steepened and after several more hours, I began to see mountains above the trees. I could see where the real climb up to the pass began. Shortly afterwards, I found myself climbing steep switchbacks and over large rocks.

An hour after starting the climb, I reached the pass. A wide saddle with great views of more distant mountains. This would have been a cool place to camp, but there was no sign of water.

Down the other side, I entered a rocky valley still with some patches of snow in places. The trail dropped sharply, and on steeper sections I found running easier than walking in the soft sand. I didn’t have to descend for long before reaching Papoose Lake, the wide flat banks along the shore looked perfect for camping so I set up for the night.