Leaving the hot springs sucked! I had a bunch of heavy food and the side trail back to the PCT was strait up. When I went down the side trail to get to the ranch all I thought of was, damn this is going to suck to go back up. It did but I was back on the PCT with food to make it to Mammoth Lakes. Going up Selden Pass was pretty gradual and it topped out a bit under 11,000 feet. Going up was enjoyable, passing by lakes under a pine tree canopy which felt more AT like than PCT. I cruised over Selden and had lunch on the other side at one of the multiple lakes there. Heading down was easy but before the day was over I still had to hike up and over bear ridge and camp down close to the VVR ferry junction (another ranch located on a lake). It would put the day around 20 miles and I was getting tired before even climbing the ridge. The climb up sucked and took a lot out of me physically and mentally. You stop for more than a minute and you become swarmed with mosquitoes. Welcome to mosquito-land! There should have been a banner because from this point forward the word is that they are everywhere and pervasively intruding on any peace of mind you have for the next few hundred miles. Oh yay! When I reached the top of bear ridge I ran down the switchbacks on the otherside to camp(also mosquito infested hell). It was later and getting dark fast so I made a fire to deal with the bugs, set everything up and had a big ol' chilli mac and beef meal. It tasted good but I knew I'd pay for it the next day, those mountain house meal tear you up on the inside.
And tear me up it did! The next morning I got up and started my way up to Silver Pass. I farted chilli mac the entire way up. I met a ranger around my age early and talked to him for a bit; a lot of people are out doing trail repair due to the massive blowdowns from last years storm and he was 'supervising'. Going up Silver had some really steep parts but it was a scenic pass which looked physically like early in the Sierra's, sandy with sequoias and large boulders. At this point, the passes are lower and I am not as high up so the ecosystem is similar to when I first entered the Sierra's at mid-elevation. I trucked up another uphill after going down Silver to Virginia Lake, shaped like the state and it was massive, beautiful, and full of marmots hanging out. I kept moving until I got to Purple Lake where I found a campspot and made a fire. The mosquitoes still hung around the fire they must have been some super-mosquito breed that wasn't affected by the smoke. What the hell. As it got late they slowly tapered off and I could enjoy eating dinner. Tomorrow was to Red's Meadow, a middle of nowhere packstation that busses you to Mammoth Lakes, CA. The plan is to stealth camp there then take the bus to town in the morning and take two days of downtime, we'll see if I'm disciplined enough not to go into town the second I get there.
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