Day 9 - Silver Pass

Fish Creek to VVR, 7924  elevation. 

Today we traveled: 12.3miles 1975 elevation gain 3491ft elevation loss. 

JMT mile marker: 88.1mile. 

Today we are on a mission! We have a ferry ride to catch at 3:45pm and we have some ground to cover. Our plan was to start hiking at 7am, but we got delayed needing to attend to my blisters. I have one on each foot, on the outside of the heel. So on the right for my right foot and on the left on my left foot. It doesn’t hurt much when I walk thankfully only if my foot lends wrong on a rock or something, which happens every now and then. Well, they feel much better after popping and dressing them. I just need to keep it clean so I don’t get infection. Easy to do outdoor. Right. 

Back to it - today we climbed our second big pass: Silver Pass. Like Donohue, there were many alpine lakes and beautiful mountains around. We ate our breakfast and took some pictures of the view. It’s hard to put it in one frame, thinking that a video might catch it better I switch to taking short videos. There is so much to see and look at everywhere. The view is impressive. 

We start our decent which will takes over 7miles and 3300ft.

The scenery changes from alpine lakes and green meadows to forest and granite rocks till we start going down thru switch backs over a wall of granite - very steep and massive. When we feel like we can’t walk no more we reach the ferry sign on Edison Lake and join the few backpackers waiting. We got 2hr to kill and the conversation goes from “Northbound or Southbound” , “how to pack lighter”, “which pass is hardest”, “how warm it is and why we all carry rain gear and way too warm sleeping bags” to “ I wonder if they serve french fries “. Typical backpackers topics.  We are all in a need of a shower and something cold to drink. The boat ride is 20min and it’s nice to sit around while you’re making the distance for a change. We arrive and it’s a cute little place with a store and a restaurant on the lake. They have a few rooms for rent, usually booked out but I ask around and they have availability for tonight in a yurt! We get to sleep in an actual bed and tomorrow we are taking a zero day. A rest day. A day with 0 miles hiked. Yay! 

We enjoyed a tofu salad and a cold beer before retiring for the night. 

Yifat 

Our room for the night