Monday June 23, 24.7mi/39.8km

McCutcheon Creek (1038.0/8750ft) to North Furlong Creek (1062.7/9900ft) (NV)

I started off the day with a little more hiking in the aspen forest, everything has been so green lately, I’ve forgotten I’m hiking in a desert.

After climbing a little higher I get above the forest and get some views!

The trail goes up and down over a series of hills and every time it enters a drainage it gets a little overgrown. Fortunately there were cairns to mark the way.

Even a few stream crossings.

In many ways, the Ruby Mountains feel like a smaller version of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

There were so many little creek crossings and water sources, I never had to carry water for more than a couple of miles.

After climbing up out of the drainages, I was back on top of the ridgeline where it was nice and sunny.

I enjoyed a nice lunch up there and figured I’d have an easy afternoon. But after rounding your corner, I saw that there were still many lingering cornices and snowfields on the North- and east-facing slopes.

The snow was quite soft, so it was easy to kick little steps. Definitely not steep enough to be dangerous, it was just energy intensive.

I crossed over a pass and then had an absolutely ridiculous view down to these two Alpine lakes, the Overland Lakes.

The upper lake was mostly thawed and was tempting for a swim.

And given how far I was from a trailhead, the trail was surprisingly well maintained up here.

I went down to the lakeshore to get a better photo and dip my feet in the water. It was definitely refreshing.

After carefully getting down some more snow slopes I was at the lower Overland Lake.

It was a very peaceful little lake. I didn’t hear any animal sounds, and even the scattered campsites were deserted.

Yep, it definitely feels like hiking through the Sierras.

At the outlet end of the lake was this mysterious little abandoned cabin.

Also at the outlet end of the lake, much to my surprise, was another backpacker. I haven’t seen another hiker on this trail since California, which was about 500 miles ago. I met “Llama”, who was up for a weekend backpacking trip. Even more coincidentally, he’s one of the very few people who’ve actually thru-hiked the Hot Springs Trail before. Amazing. I had a fun afternoon hiking and chatting with him!

I mostly forgot to take photos that I was excited to be chatting with another human, but it did capture a few. Like this mysterious object next to the trail.

We did have to surmount a few more small cornices, though most of them we were able to easily go around.

I believe this was near the summit of Wines Peak, over 10,000 ft.

Neither of us wanted to camp up on a high ridgeline, so I hiked a little later than I normally would. We watched the sunset as we descended into a little valley to camp.

We made it down to North Furlong Creek just after sunset and set up camp near each other. I haven’t camped with anybody yet on this entire trail! We took pre-dinner selfie before retiring to our respective tents.

Fun day!