Tuesday July 20, 2021
Start: Duck Lake outlet
End: Silver Lake campsite
Miles: 12.0 (+8.6 mi for me)
Gain/Loss: 3770’/3300′
In the morning, I got up early and set out to see if I could find Toby’s socks. I walked almost all the way back to Deer Creek but couldn’t find them, despite finding two of the exact places we stopped. However, I was able to yogi some AAA batteries for my headlamp from two guys heading to Red’s. I made it back to the campsite at Duck Lake outlet by 7:45am and reunited with Toby. He had eaten breakfast and packed up everything except the tent.
We headed out around 8:45 and hiked by Purple Lake, where we took a short snack break and I dried the tent footprint. From there, we hiked to Lake Virginia, where we made lunch, dried out the soaking wet tent and sleeping bags, and Toby went for a swim. It was a lovely time.
We arrived at Squaw Lake in the evening; we made dinner and then hiked up Silver Pass. After the pass, we continued downward until Silver Lake, and there we filtered water and set up our tent on a small, raised sandy overlook, with a few evergreen trees and a marmot for company. It was lovely to set up before 7pm and we had a nice quiet evening before heading to bed around 8:30.
Transcending Mountains 