The Adventures of...: Days 58-59

Day 58, 12 miles, endpoint PCT mile 848

The frosty alpine air woke us up this morning; neither of us wanted to leave the tent, but we knew we had to get over that pass sooner than later. We shook the ice off the rainfly, I stuffed my feet into my frozen shoes, and we were off.

I immediately lost the trail in the first patch of snow we came across, only a quarter mile from our campsite. I followed a rock cairn that took us up past a creek and over some huge boulders. After a little bit we looked to our right and saw two hikers 100 yards away on the correct trail. We kicked ourselves for losing the trail that easily, then went cross country, through an icy creek, and were finally headed in the right direction again. Things were not off to a good start.

Route finding was a bit of an issue on the ascent up Muir Pass, as the trail came and went frequently under snow. We lost it a couple more times along the way, but we were generally headed in the right direction: up.

When we hit the two and a half hour mark of our ascent (for what should have been only about two miles and 900 feet elevation gain), Josh shouted back to me that he could see the hut. This was the best thing I had heard in a long time. The "hut" he could see was the John Muir Hut, erected by the Sierra Club in 1930 in his memory at the top of the pass that bears his name. Seeing the hut meant we could see the pass summit. We were almost there.

When we reached the top, we spent some time enjoying the 360 degree view from 11,973 feet. Josh took a bunch of photos, and after some exploring I hung out in the hut, where it was considerably warmer and free of wind. We talked with a few other hikers, including Salt and Pepper, the French Canadian we hiked and camped with in the desert section. We hadn't seen him since Big Bear Lake, so it was fun catching up with him and hearing how the last 500 miles had been.

We couldn't put it off any longer; we had to make the descent. I was pleasantly surprised to find the downhill on the north side of Muir Pass to be gradual and fairly easy, unlike nearly every other pass we had been over. We rambled along another bleak and barren landscape much like that on top of Bishop Pass. There were no trees to speak of, just rock, snow, and frozen lakes for a couple of miles as we very, very slowly dropped in elevation.

Eventually we landed in Evolution Valley, which was nice enough we decided we were done for the day and made camp. We set up on a hill above McClure Meadow, which has bright green grass surrounding a winding river, all framed by the snowy mountains we had just come down from. This might just be paradise.

We have been hiking now for seven days since our last resupply in Independence/Bishop. In three days we plan on arriving at our next "town" stop, a place called Vermillion Valley Resort (VVR for shot). VVR is not really a town, but a resort out in the middle of nowhere. It does, however, offer everything we look for in a town: showers, laundry, a restaurant, and a store. This is our longest stretch since starting the trip without resupplying, so it will be nice when we finally get there in a few days.

Carla's & the moon.

Headed up to Muir Pass

Muir Hut!

Inside Muir Hut.

Just after Muir Pass. These clouds were amazing... kicking myself for not running back up and taking more pics of the hut.

Evolution Basin

Trail views.

McClure Meadow.

Sunset @ McClure Meadow

Day 59, 17 miles, endpoint PCT mile 865

Two miles into our hike we reached the crossing for Evolution Creek. According to our guidebook, this can be a deep and dangerous crossing, with a strong current. The book furthermore encouraged hikers to prepare for a "swim," and to pick a "bailout point" ahead of time for if (when?) you fall in the water. The book recommended not crossing at the trail, the deepest point, and instead offered other options for crossing points. All of our maps also included alternate routes for crossing. In addition, a sign installed by the National Park Service warned hikers of the hazardous water crossing. All of this made me a little bit uneasy as we reached the creek. However, thanks to the unusually low snow year, the crossing was all bark, no bite. We crossed right at the trail and had no issues other than the water reaching mid-thigh. Disaster avoided.

From that point the day was mostly uneventful. We left Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park and entered the John Muir Wilderness. Speaking of John Muir, we passed by a cabin built as a memorial to him by the Parks Service decades ago. The cabin was rustic looking and made out of logs. When we got close enough to go inside we found it to be dark and dirty, with rusty nails sticking out of odd spots on the walls and graffiti marked on the outside. Not a very fitting memorial, unfortunately.

We dropped below 8,000 feet for the first time in over a week or so, then immediately started going back up in elevation. We were on an exposed rocky hillside, switching back and forth as we went up, up, up for quite some time. Josh was happy to see that the repair job he did for his shirt held up under the beating sun; yesterday, he had a hole so large on the right shoulder of the shirt that he got a sunburn right at that spot. Last night he did a quick sewing job on the hole. His shirt is now very Frankenstein-ish, but at least he avoided another sunburn.

We are camped just below Selden Pass, our last pass before we get to VVR. This one is supposed to be quite easy; I am not even sure if there will be any snow.