Day's end: VVR! (cheeseburgers! beer!)
Day's miles: 5.8 miles
Total trip miles: 87.9 miles
Last night wasn't nearly as cold as the night before, so we both got a good night's sleep even though Aaron said he woke up a few times to look at the Milky Way and the other stars. Knowing that today was going to be a short, easy day we even allowed ourselves to sleep in a little, so we ended up crawling out of the tent a little before 6:30, and took our time getting our gear packed up and ready to go.
Before getting back on the trail, we stopped by to say good morning to Rob and talked about our plans for the day. Both of us were planning on getting to Thomas Edison Lake before 4pm, as that was the last time the Vermilion Valley Resort (VVR) ferry would bus people across the lake and over to cheeseburger/beer paradise for the day.
Good morning!
Some wildflowers along the way.
We were able to really take our time today, so I took the opportunity to take extra pictures... of trees... what can I say, I like trees a lot.
The hike today was mostly downhill the entire way, and rocky for most of it. We took our time working our way down to the lake, and made it there a little before 2pm. While we waited for the ferry, we ran into 3 llamas that were tied up and grazing, and we tried to take our picture with them (they belonged to a father/son team hiking the PCT southbound and were using the llamas as pack animals... sometimes, I feel like I could use a llama...). Waiting for the ferry for a few hours was more fun than expected. Besides our stop at Tuolumne Meadows where we hung out by a river for a large portion of the afternoon, we hadn't really had another opportunity to just hang out in one spot for an extended period of time. While Aaron, Rob, and I waited for the ferry to arrive, Robin, John, and Nilla, and Ian and John showed up too. It was great to see everybody else, and we all boarded the ferry and made our way to hiker heaven.
The side trail to the Lake Thomas A. Edison ferry.
...I was a little worried about that far llama...
Waiting for the ferry to take us all to VVR hiker heaven.
Lake Thomas A. Edison and the ferry dock
After arriving at VVR, the owner, Jim, showed us around and let us know what was available (showers, beer, laundry, beer, food, beds, beer). First things first, we got ourselves our free first beer (and another large Arrogant Bastard each - yes, they serve Stone beer here. Heaven.), and made our way to our tent cabin. After unloading all our stuff and changing into the cleanest clothes we could find, we made our way to the laundry machines and the showers. After we cleaned ourselves up a bit and got a nice little beer buzz going we made our way to the restaurant.
Oh my God.
The food here was just great (I had smoked tri-tip, mashed potatoes, apple pie, and more beer). It was made even better because we were able to eat, drink, and hang out with all of the people we had been hiking with so far, which made for one of my most enjoyable evenings yet.
View from the porch (yes, a porch!) of our tent cabin.
You can enlarge any of these pictures by clicking on them.
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