Not sure if I was quite ready to leave VVR and all that delicious food, but our time was up and we needed to continue our trek. We were taking the VVR “ferry” back to the trail rather than hiking the five miles out and received instructions on the do’s and don’ts of ferry riding. Masks required of course. There were about 20 backpackers who needed a ride so we unfortunately we didn’t have the six feet apart luxury but we did the best we could trying not to touch each other. I was sitting in the back and was entertained by watching to see if the Honda 150 outboard motor was going to be strong enough to push this pontoon boatload of people four miles to the east side of the lake. The captain pointed out a new wildfire that had started from the big thunderstorm yesterday afternoon. One backpacker who was caught in it said the hail was the size of quarters and he was so thankful he was carrying an umbrella to protect him from the pounding. We could hear a couple of planes and one helicopter as they arrived on the scene to immediately squash the fire before it became a roaring inferno.
We had a huge 3,183 elevation gain today and it was hot. It was supposed to be 4,383 feet of elevation gain and our goal was to make it to Lake Virginia for the night but after tackling the steep section in the morning, I simply couldn’t do the extra 1,200 feet of elevation in the afternoon and fell short by 3.5 miles. After pushing so hard the first half of this trip, I was plum out of gas. I’m not sure if I needed more protein in my diet or what. I do carry a little baggy of “Lite Salt” and when I get this way, it does help to dip a finger into it several times and get some sodium into my system. It also wards off cramping in the legs and in the toes. I’ve been using my umbrella every day to keep the sun off me which also helps. Of course, we would have to make those extra miles up somewhere else.