Tully Hole

Dropping into Tully Hole.  This area is between Mammoth Mountain and Lake Thomas Edison (our resupply spot place thing zone). We had spent the pervious night at a beautiful lake called Purple Lake. By now Dave was limping profusely from being riddled with blisters on both his feet, the pain being amplified 10-fold on the long downhill sections. This was one of them. I need to retouch up this scan and brighten it a bit. We had to cross those big mountains, aka The Silver Divide, via aptly named Silver Pass. I had to use every bit of my 17mm to fit everything into the frame. The trail switchbacks steeply down, which is why the right foreground just looks like dirt... it's actually steep layers of trail. That's the headwaters of Fish Creek meandering down in the meadow. The guy in the back is Brian, aka Bailer Bri, who had his girlfriend waiting for him at the Vermilion Resort for their resupply. He never left her arms, even when we left for the trail the next day. He's a great guy and we really wished he finished with us. WOMEN!

This is the shuttle across Thomas Edison Lake that goes from Mono Creek to Vermilion Resort, where cheeseburgers, showers, beer, and a bunch of other JMT thru-hikers awaited. It was a slice of heaven after a week on the trail. Even the boat ride itself was really cool.

One of the guys we hooked up with on the trip had some buddies drive up and they camped with us. They cooked steak and all kinds of great stuff. It was an awesome experience! This shot is just a few steps from our shoreline campsite on Thomas Edison Lake, where we had a layover for an afternoon, morning, and next afternoon. It was a great charge for our internal batteries and a lot of fun!

Our boat shuttle back across the lake.  I don't know how Dave is keeping his hat on in the wind. That's Jim facing forward in the white hat. Turn around... that's me behind the camera.