20 miles of hiking • 4000' elevation gain • 2 nights
Decided to take advantage of the long weekend to head south to backpack in the central Sierras with a friend from back in my Fresno days.
We left Fresno at about 9am for the long drive to the TH at Edison Lake. It's not that far in terms of mileage (about 90 miles), but the last 30 miles are over a single lane road with lots of steep drop offs, blind curves and hills, and with the holiday weekend, traffic. We were on the trail by 1pm.
The first mile or so is along Lake Edison, part of Southern California Edison's system of lakes and reservoirs in the area. The lake frighteningly low for this time of year. Note: Vermilion Valley Resort (VVR) usually runs a hiker shuttle across the lake. This year they are running small boats (4 seat fishing boats) instead of their larger pontoon boat from the boat launch down the road because there is so little water.
After leaving the lake behind, it was steady uphill for most of the hike to Graveyard Lakes. Patches of snow starting appearing around 8000ft, and we had to cross some smaller snowfields at around 9000ft. Lower Graveyard Lakes still had some ice and snow on the surface. We set up camp at Lower Graveyard Lakes.
The next morning, we packed up and headed cross country toward the Silver Divide and Silver Fox Pass. Upper Graveyard Lakes was still snowed in. The approach to Silver Fox Pass was clear on the south side, but completely snow covered on the north side. After enjoying the views, we retreated to Lower Graveyard Lakes for a second night.
Tuesday morning, we packed up and headed back to our car. We passed three groups heading in. When we got back to our car, there were only four in the parking lot. It was at that point, we realized we probably had the wilderness all to ourselves the last night of our trip. :)
On the way out we stopped at VVR, where we met three PCT thru hikers from Ashland, OR. They were one of the early groups to pass through for the season. The first PCT thru hikers arrived at VVR less than a week earlier on May 24th! We left them with our surplus snacks and then headed on our way back down the mountain.
