Stats

Start: Evolution Lake Overlook – Mile 844
End: Sallie Keyes Lake – Mile 864
Elevation Max: 10,896
Elevation Min: 7,722
Elevation Change: 3,497 up & 4,145 down
Average Heart Rate: 102
Walking Time: 7 hrs 12 minutes
Date: 5/29/2022

The Walk

I woke up in the amazing camping spot to frozen water. It was still flipping cold. I learned my watch has the last 4 hours of temperature and it said 23 degrees at 4am. What the hell. That’s freezing. Thank god for my 10 degree bag.

Quest and I stayed in the sleeping bags waiting for the sun to peak over the mountains. Hoping for another 10 degrees. But I couldn’t wait that long and eventually got up and packed. As soon as I finished the sun peaked over. Figures!

I took a last look at the lake and headed out. We were going to hit a side trail back over 12,000 feet and see a glacier, but it was too cold. We just wanted to start walking and warm up.

It was surreal walking down into the valley we looked over last night. We spent all morning walking through. It was filled with trees, countless streams, and animals. Lots of deer and squirrels running around.

A river flowed through the middle of the valley and we often walked across. Sometimes the trail would open up and we’d walk into a valley soaking in the semi-warm sun. The water was insane clear.

We took a break right by the river and laid down for an hour. It was a beautiful spot. As we kept walking the river got more powerful. More and more streams flowed into it from melting snow. And at times it raged through the valley. Whitewater and waterfalls smashing against smooth rocks.

We climbed out of the valley over a few bridges and into a canyon right next to the even more raging river! It was one of my fsvorite section of trail so far. We kept walking toward Seldon pass. We didn’t plan to get there today. So it was a pretty relaxing day.

We took a side trail to Blaney hot springs and had to cross a swift river. Luckily there was a rope to hold onto! It was the fastest river we’ve had to cross. Soaking felt great and we met a few Californians who were having a weekend trip.

We almost stayed by the hot springs, but we still had 3k feet to climb to Seldon Pass. We decided to start waking and knock out as much as we could before dark.

After two hours of climbing we stopped at Sallie Keys Lakes. Thank goodness it stays light until we’ll after 8! It was another cold night. I set up my tent and ate dinner as fast as possible. Tomorrow we were going over seldon pass and into VVR! A resupply and warm food were close.