PCT 2024 Section H Day 16 – I still don’t know what a Tully Hole is

Goal for the day: Somewhere beyond Duck Pass

I woke up knowing I was two days away from Reds Meadow, a burger, Diet Coke, a shower, and laundry. Not necessarily in that order.

Some nice light from the Sunrise greeted me that morning along with a sliver of the crescent Moon running away from the Sun.

I was glad I had stopped at Nüümu Hu Hupi Lake that morning as I descended into the forested canyon I had avoided the afternoon before. Great views on the way down.

For some reason, the photo below really caught my eye when I was going through my photos. Just seemed like a great combination of the rocky ridge that I crossed the day before and the meadow and forest I would be starting this day hiking through.

As I hiked along Fish Creek, I ended up running into a trail crew clearing bushes from the side of the trail. Seemed a little strange for them to be doing that in the wilderness, so I asked about it. Seemed to be an invasive plant species that was crowding out the native plants along the river.

After walking past Tully Hole, I could not see a hole anywhere.

Then I started up the switchbacks that overlooked Tully Hole. Only problem with these switchbacks were they were very exposed, so even at mid-morning it was already getting pretty warm.

Even from above I couldn’t figure out what a Tully Hole was. 😀

In the end, it was just another name for a marshy bog.

After the climb, I reached Lake Virginia and took a well deserved rest. I didn’t really look at the elevation before starting up the switchbacks (which is sometimes a good thing because I am less likely to chicken out if I don’t know how much the climb is). I was a little shocked to know the climb up from Tully Hole to the lake was about 900 feet to climb. Not really that much and the only extended climb for this day.

I would have LOVED to camp at this lake for a night, but I felt I was two days behind my schedule. I say “felt like two days”, since I was actually only behind a day due to my Zero Day at Muir Trail Ranch. I think it was the exhaustion catching up to me and making me feel more spent that I expected to be at this point.

Nothing really new there. 😀

I tested the temperature of the lake’s water. Didn’t feel like a swim.

After Lake Virginia, it was a short easy hike to Purple Lake, a second gorgeous Alpine lake in the Sierras for the day.

Again, I’d have loved to have camped at this lake, but couldn’t for two reasons:

No camping was allowed at Purple Lake (although you could go up Ram Lake Trail a bit and find some legal campsites).
It wasn’t even 2pm yet.

So, I make my way towards Duck Lake Pass.

I had no desire to abort at Duck Pass, so wouldn’t see Duck Lake during this trip since it wasn’t on the PCT and couldn’t be seen from the PCT.

The area around the Duck Pass Trail Junction was nice, open, and was my goal for the day. I debated filling up on water and continuing a little further.

While the next 5 miles had no water sources, the trail traced it’s way along the ridge line so there weren’t a lot of flat camping sites. I had seen one in 2020 a bit down the ridge from the trail, but didn’t feel like continuing to it. My over optimistic idea that I might make it to the Red Cones area to camp that night turned out to be VERY unrealistic the way I felt.

So, I scoped out the area for a good spot and found one. Unfortunately, it apparently was used by mule teams based on the… droppings. Another spot looked okay, but was buried in the forest without any views.

The third spot that I took a close look at was just right. Flat area. Fairly good view. Access to water. And no mule do-do.

A single day’s hike away from Reds Meadow. Even if I didn’t go as far as Red Cones, the rest of the way was mostly downhill.