9/20/2023
Section: Milepost 868 to 847.2
Total Trail Miles: 2090
Distance: 24.38 Miles
Moving Time: 09:38 Hrs
Elevation Gain: 3041 ft
Everything was frozen this morning. There were large sheets of ice which had formed on the outside of the tent but, despite this, it wasn't too terribly cold. I was all over the place temperature-wise last night though - started too cold, then got too warm then cold again. Felt like the karate kid - jacket off, then on, then off again. I turned over and looked at the ground outside the tent. A smattering of ice pellets had stuck around through the night in patches under trees and in depressions on the ground. Our things were all just a touch damp given the race to get inside the night before and permeating humidity in the air but now, in high contrast to the craziness of last night, the air was crisp, clean and clear.
We had some breakfast and I had some coffee to wash down the atrocious breakfast protein puck that has become my daily start. There are going to be a lot of things after this is all said and done that i won’t be able to eat for some time and these breakfast pucks are one of them. On the trail though, they have the great power of keeping me feeling fueled and full for several hours into a given stage and that is invaluable. We packed up our things. The tent went into the backpack wet, which is one of my least favorite aspects of these damper mornings but it can’t be helped - we aren’t waiting for the sun to come out. Once everything was away and organized we did our warm-ups and began the day.
The stage today starts in much of the same way as yesterday, with a short climb to a pass just above us. In this case, the pass was Selden Pass. Selden Pass is a narrow cut between Mt. Seneger and Mt. Hooper, two behemoths that make up the west side of the crest in this area. From the pass, the PCT descends off their flanks 3000 feet, transitioning from high alpine to thick forest, eventually dumping into the South Fork of the San Joaquin river drainage. Here, a short detour is made to reach the Muir Trail Ranch, where many PCT hikers send a resupply bucket to avoid going out at Bishop Pass, into Bishop. From Muir Trail Ranch the PCT commits up the San Joaquin River, past Shooting Star Meadow and Tule Lake on a very gradual climb for just over 7 miles. At 15 miles into the stage, the PCT makes a sudden steep ascent to leave the San Joaquin River behind and follow what is, arguably, one of the most famous creeks on the entire PCT - Evolution Creek. This marks the ascent into a truly magnificent section of the trail which is the Evolution valley. A mile and a half on and the trail flattens back out and continues a beautiful meander up through a number of tranquil meadows that make up the lower Evolution basin. The day ends just above McGee Meadow and below the climb to Evolution Lake.
We cruised up to Seldon Pass, making some fond jokes about Amanda’s Grandpa who bears the same name and who, like our experience last night, had a tough time finishing all the commitments he sometimes set out to complete. We were on top in about 30 minutes but were generally happy with our decision not to carry on last night. There were some spots up on the pass but they were very exposed. Nothing like setting up a lightning rod in the middle of an electrical storm. We stopped briefly on top to take it all in. This is the core Sierra and it is GORGEOUS. We carried on a few minutes later, committing to the pain-train that is 7 miles and 3000 feet of elevation loss.
We cruised down through the stage, hitting 3 mph in places. Descending always hinges on trail condition. Most of the time in the Sierra, the descents have a lot of loose rocks which makes foot placement tricky and a little slower than some of the descents in the Cascades. We passed by Sallie Keyes Lakes which was inundated with JMTrs. One asked, while waiting for her tent to dry in the first rays of morning light, if we were going to let our tent dry. We said no, probably not, because it was just going to get wet again, before carrying on. About 2 hours in, the trail took a nosedive down and started to lose elevation fast.
The Alpine gave way to the sub-Alpine and eventually we were back in the thick treeline. Paper boat eventually passed us and we asked if he was going to MTR (Muir Trail Ranch). He said yes and that he would see us there. Around 11 am we reached the turn-off for MTR and took it. The trees cleared as we made the final descent into the Ranch.
Muir Trail Ranch is a family run resort deep in the Sierra and service by a long lake, called Florence Lake, which allows access from the foothills of the Sierra into the core crest. As mentioned above, it helps PCT hikers bridge the distance between Kearsarge Pass and Mammoth by sending a resupply bucket and thereby avoiding the long exit out Bishop Pass to Bisho. We had sent our bucket to MTR in May, when we started, expecting to pick it up in mid-to-late July as per my original itinerary. As is now obvious, we didn’t stick to that itinerary and our poor Home Depot bucket had been sitting forlornly in a shed at MTR for almost 2 months longer than expected. Why a bucket, you might ask? Well, evidently, the packages have to make a lake crossing on what I was told were occasionally over-laden speed boats, in all sorts of weather. Occasionally, packages get lost overboard or heavily rained on, on their journey across Florence Lake and buckets handle all of these scenarios much better than boxes so, bucket it was. My parents had actually done the sending of the bucket and my mom had dreamed up all sorts of scenarios about us not getting it, so I was sure whatever we were going to find once we got there was going to be bulletproof.
We arrived at MTR around noon. After dropping our packs, Amanda set our tent out on a clothes line to dry while I went to negotiate receipt of our bucket. After about 5 minutes of waiting a guy returned with our little time-capsule and we went to work opening it. It took me a bit longer than I had anticipated but eventually I got it open. Inside were all sorts of goodies - Fritos, Trader Joe's Chili Lime Tortilla Chip-rolls, Aaron Baker Breakfast cookies, Nutter Butter bars, and breakfast grits. All-in-all we did pretty well for ourselves. Some of the meals were from a left-over stash of instant meals we had had before starting the trail and we weren’t super excited about eating them but they had to get eaten at some point.
We stuck around for about an hour at the ranch, getting our bucket contents sorted and stored, letting the tent dry, charging electronics and chatting with Paper Boat. Some PCTrs and JMTrs came through and eventually we left, headed southeast along the San Joaquin River. We cruised steadily up, wearily watching thunderheads roll by overhead. At 14.2 Miles in we crossed the San Joaquin River where, a few months earlier, we had heard the same crossing was life threatening. Now, while still a big river, the crossing was highly manageable.
Once across, we engaged in a stout climb up and into the lowest parts of the Evolution Basin. The thunderheads were now moving away from us and we started to rest easy that we weren't going to get another stormfront over us later that evening.
Eventually, sunset came and went while we toiled on. All over now, in the evening, we are starting to notice JMTrs in various stages of setting up or relaxing. Guess that is a bonus of having 3-4 weeks to do 200 miles - you can pick and choose where you want to fall asleep and wake up. As it was, we pushed as far as we could go, picking out an unknown campsite on FarOut along Evolution Creek just before the climb into the upper basin.
We stopped and set-up camp in a tall stand of trees and in the midst of about 10 JMTrs. They all looked at us, bewildered, coming in after dark. The conditions for this set-up were much more favorable and we were able to calmly sort out duties. Tonight was Buffalo Mac & Cheese which is one of our favorites. We added in about a 3rd of the cheese block that Amanda carried out of Mammoth which substantially added to the cheesiness of th freeze dried dinner. Afterwards we enjoyed the moon which was in the “sliver” phase, but out and very visible, before passing out to the slow and steady gurgle of Evolution Creek.
