'No Canister Required' Tour - Day 8 Squaw Lake to Iva Bell Hotsprings

(Click on any photo to enlarge) We woke up refreshed and well rested. The photo above is the view we had over coffee. Hiking only 8 miles yesterday almost seemed like a day off. Today was a treat for all of us as we were leaving the JMT to enter Cascade Valley. This deviation from the trail is the way we get around being 'required' to carry a bear canister. If we were to stay on the JMT North we would be fined if caught without a canister. I think this this is totally ridiculous anywhere except Yosemite. The only time we've ever even seen black bears, we've been within 3 miles of a trailhead. We joke that food stealing bears in the backcountry are a joke perpetrated by Rangers. (We also joke that Giardia is another lie started by the same Rangers as we have drank many times from backcountry water sources, without treating, with no ill effects) None of us have been in the Cascade Valley/Fish Creek area before. We packed up and were on trail at 7:30am. After a few miles we reached our turn off and left the JMT for good. We immediately saw the reason it is named Cascade Valley. At every turn of the trail, we were greeted with views of water cascading down granite. The trail was over grown in areas and for the first time on the trip we actually had to route find a bit! The trail obviously doesn't see a lot of traffic like the JMT. With all the water everywhere and all the foliage, the mosquitoes started to seek in on us. So even though I wanted to take a bunch of photos, we kept on rollin to stay a step ahead of the annoying bloodsuckers. We had only 13 miles to do today before (hopefully) camping at Iva Bell Hotsprings.
The hotsprings don't see a lot of people because they are out of dayhiker range. Being 13 miles of hard hiking from Reds Meadows, the hotsprings are difficult to get to even for overnighters. Before we entered the Fish Creek Valley (where the hotsprings are), we had to climb up and over a ridge to get out of Cascade Valley. We all noticed the temperature rising as we lost altitude. The hotsprings sit at 7100ft, which is the lowest we've been the whole trip. The descent off the ridge was hot, sandy and heinous. When we reached the Sharktooth Creek convergence we dropped our packs to find the hotsprings and find out if there were any sites close. Funk and I followed a couple of game trails uphill and finally stumbled upon this below:
We were stoked! We found a site close and went back down the hill to get Christi and our packs. Once we set up camp and looked around the area we found another pool.
Both pools were very clean and warm. The upper pool (above) wasn't quite a warm as the first one we found. Funk went exploring up the hill even more and found a few more pools although they weren't as nice as the two lowest pools. We sat in the hotsprings until our fingers and toes were white prunes then walked west a bit to Sharktooth Creek to clean up and do laundry. By then the sun was starting to go down so we went back to camp and had our last dinner for the trip. Our packs will be superlight tomorrow! After dinner Funk and I started taking photos and just chillin on a huge granite boulder enjoying the sunset and the scenery around it. All in all a great day.