Hiking the JMT: Outlet of Duck Lake to Squaw Lake (Day 9)

Virginia Lake

Highlights of Day 9

Mosquitoes
Poison oak
Poison oak
Mo’ mosquitoes (safe to say Tully Hole was not my favorite place on the JMT)
Oh and some really pretty mountains and lakes!

Trail Journal

7:20 pm

Squaw Lake

I’m pretty sure this is my first entry so far to be written not in my sleeping bag. I’m sitting on a large table-like slab of granite by our tent, looking out onto Squaw Lake. The sun is at that perfect angle where all the colors are illuminated with extra radiance. It’s very gorgeous.

Today continued the theme of “mountains beyond mountains.” It also continued the theme of “mosquitoes beyond mosquitoes.”

We went through Tully Hole today, which I was interested in because (a) it sounds different than all the names of the other areas we’ve seen and been hiking through, and (b) there are supposed to be some springs near there.

Sad to say, Tully Hole (where we were originally supposed to spend the night) has been renamed “Helly Hole” in my book, on account of the infernal conflagration of mosquitoes (thousands of them! maybe even millions!) and poison oak carpeting the ground everywhere. Needless to say, we hiked through there haste post haste.

Our site now, however, more than makes up for it. We’re just below Silver Pass, which we’ll cross early in the morning. We would’ve crossed it today to get a few miles farther, but when we arrived the clouds in all directions were dark and ominous, and we didn’t want to risk being caught in a thunderstorm (or more to the point, a lightning storm) with no cover for miles.
As it turned out we got a light rain–and the Tully Hole area looked like it got a deluge–but no lightening. Hopefully the good luck holds tomorrow.

I’ve really started enjoying the trip. It took about the first week or so to settle into it, but I feel like we’ve been hitting our stride. Will the PCT be next, or will I be content with epic car-camping trips & shorter backpacking trips? Time will tell!

[Editor’s note: the PCT of officially on my bucket list!]

Day 9 of the JMT: Photo Gallery

Click on any photo to view a larger version. You can also leave comments on any photo.

Lake Virginia. To give a sense of scale, note the specks on the granite boulders in the center ofthe photo, just below the lake. Those are people sitting on the rocks.