Pushing on to Lake Virginia

Refreshing Tired Feet at Purple Lake
We sleep well, till 8 am, with a little help from Dyphenhydramine, off to a slow start at 9:45, no hurry today. It's a long slow climb up towards the Duck Lake outlet and the Duck Pass Trail, it's looking like a good lunch spot.

It turns out to be just so, and there's a large group who agree, they're hanging out just up the creek from us and seem in no hurry to leave, filtering water and talking, lounging on the grass by the stream.

I take a nap after lunch but not feeling great and have no energy, bummer cause there's a climb coming up, never the best time to do it and tired into the bargain, start wondering if it's related to being in Mammoth Lakes.

Lake Virginia
Luckily the climb isn't long and there's an excuse to stop very often-looks like bighorn sheep have their marks on the trail, and I stop to see if I can spot them, alas no luck.

We stop at Purple Lake for a break, to look for a campsite, and a foot bath to try and revive, there don't seem to be any good campsites there so we decide to push on to Virginia Lake. There's a sign that says no camping within 300' of the outlet, the best campsites are much closer than that however, we decide not to risk a ranger encounter.


There's a bit of climb outa the lake area, feeling better after a snack and foot bath and we make better time though it seems like a long way. We catch up to the young group from lunch at Purple Lake outlet, we're right at Lake Virginia but the let us pass and we spy what looks like a lovely campsite on a small promontory jutting into the lake.
Lake Virginia

It turns out to be a bit rocky and difficult to get the tent set up, and there are lotsa rodents around scurrying this way and that, gotta watch our food bags closely to keep them out. The main campsites seem to be a bit away from the lake up a small hill.



We take a short walk to check things out a bit more, a brave couple have gone for a swim in the chilly waters, we stop to chat with a small group cooking on a rock not far from the lake. It's an early sunset because of the nearby mountains and we don't have a campfire 'cause we're camping above 10,000' for the first time.

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