9/21/2023
Section: Milepost 847.2 to 827.5
Total Trail Miles: 2109.7
Distance: 20.84 Miles
Moving Time: 10:01 hrs
Elevation Gain: 2979 ft
We were up and out before the JMTrs this morning. We are at a point now where we are up and on the trail in about 30 minutes or less. The hardcore PCTrs keep this time below 15 minutes on each side of the day - it’s literally walk and sleep with as little time devoted to the points in-between as possible. We aren’t quite there but getting closer and there is something about the efficiency that I like.
The route today starts with a steep climb out of the lower Evolution Basin and ascends almost 1000 feet in a mile and a half to the outlet of Evolution Lake. From Evolution lake, the stage makes a more slow progression through a chain of alpine lakes, including Sapphire, Huxley, Wanda and McDermand before ultimately crossing over Muir Pass at almost 12,000 feet. Here the trail passes by a stacked-stone emergency hut - the Muir Hut - before descending toHelen Lake and dropping into the Middle Fork of the King River drainage. The trail continues down this river, ultimately dropping about 4000 feet to where the stage ends, along Palisades Creek, just past where it joins the Middle Fork of the King River.
Our legs burned as we made our way up the steep access into the Evolution Valley. Pikas “roared” all around us and I whipped my phone out to make a comment in FarOut. Someone is going to be pissed about all the pika related beta I am leaving behind but it’s important that someone keeps track of these little guys. I wouldn’t want anyone to be surprised.
As we climbed, the path before us reaffirmed my amazement at how well the state of California and the National Parks Service keeps this track. The switchbacks are carved into solid stone in some spaces and others are precipitously mounted in scree and rock fields. There is almost an artistry to the way the trail finds its way through narrow headwalls and unveils the destination at the last moment. When it was revealed, though, the Evolution Valley was jaw dropping. Hewn by glaciers out of solid granite, the six mile valley is a poster child for the core Sierra. Bedazzled with calendar-worthy lakes, it’s downright dreamy. So, naturally, with something this good we also encountered no small amount of fellow hikers on the path.
As I've mentioned before, my parents used to take us camping alot growing up. After I got a bit older, my dad would take me backpacking. I remember him saying that being in places like this with a lot of other people is hard, because it feels like you should be alone in something as grand as the Evolution Valley. He added shortly after that, to some degree, you should also be happy to see other people out here because it means that there is solidarity in support for keeping it the way it is. I remember saying this same thing to a woman from Seattle on the summit of Sahale Peak in the North Cascades a few years back and she basically told me to shove that attitude up my ass…so, not everyone sees it like that but it makes sense to me.
As we made our way further up the pass we started to notice the similarities between the high granite passes of the Sierra and those we had encountered in the Himalaya. They have much of the same starkness and lumbering approach to them. Similar to what you would find on something like the Thorung La at the apex of the Annapurna Circuit.
It was as we were nearing the top of the pass that some… toxic masculinity came out. I don’t take being passed very well and these JMTrs don’t have super far to go every day so they are like hyperactive hares in the morning, sprinting up stuff. So, about the 10th person to pass us as we made the final climb up to Muir Pass I too, started sprinting and left Amanda behind. I know - really bad look and not a moment I will ever be proud of but I couldn’t take it anymore. At the top, I dropped my pack and looked back down the valley. The day was bright and the air was cold and clear. The view was absolutely epic. I milled around a little bit until a very disappointed Amanda showed up. There were about 15 other people at the hut so we sat down outside with a few of them to have a quick snack, Amanda still side-eyeing me as we broke into some kettle chips. Another problem that we are coming to understand is that we have literally no fat stores left. I mean, there might be some, but we are mostly just skin and bones now. Our very unscientific theory is that fat stores modulate your blood sugar and can compensate for times when you should have eaten but didn’t. Without them, as we are in our current state, the feedback loop is extremely short - like, you forget to eat, and you know about it real fast. There have been days in the last month or so where we found ourselves snapping at each other only to realize that we hadn’t eaten in over an hour and were just hangry. I’d like to think this had something to do with my shortcomings this afternoon but I also recognize that some of it was also just who I am as a person - flawed in so many ways.
Muir Pass was amazing but, eventually, we did have to carry on. We are still 50 miles from the turn-off from Kearsarge and there are a whole lotta passes between us and there. We began walking down. The path made a broad turn northeast in order to drop between the Helen Lake and Black Giant ridge. The path here is brutal, even despite the incredible ingenuity and effort Kings Canyon employees to keep it highly accessible. In theory, the whole PCT is accessible to horses but as we dropped by Helen Lake I was becoming less and less convinced this was possible in this section. Just as I was about to firm up that position, however, I nearly took a step in a giant pile of horse shit. “Did you see that?” I asked Amanda. “See what,” she said in a tone that suggested i wasn’t out of the woods yet (pun intended) for my transgressions on the way up Muir. “Someone actually got a horse up here!” Didn’t get much back but i could totally tell she was just as amazed as I was.
The northern exit out of Muir Pass was brutal. Similar to Donnohue. Big steps, lots of loose rock. Amanda had a hard time. We kept going back and forth with the JMTrs which became a problem when Amanda had to pee and I had to shout at a guy to please stop so she could finish. Honestly, over 2000 miles with not a single event like this but here, on the PCT’s most popular stretch, Amanda almost committed indecent exposure. We just aren’t used to having to go find a secluded pee spot.
Six hours brought us firmly out of the pass and into the tree-line. We are back in the land of Sierra Junipers which are probably my favorite trees on the PCT and I love seeing them driven into the granite floor of this range. As we went, I took bites out of a ball of conglomerated sour patch kids that formed in my food bag over the last few days. I swear, candy has gotten really popular in this family in the last month - cavities are going to abound when we finally get checked again.
At 16 miles on, we passed the turn-off for Bishop Pass. “Man, I am so glad we don’t have to take that,” I said as I peered up at another seemingly-impenetrable headwall of granite. Ninety minutes more put us at the low point for the day. We left the Middle Fork of the Kings River behind and joined Palisades Creek where we started what would be tomorrow’s battle - the long ascent to Mather Pass. Today though, we hiked a mile up-river before stopping to make camp on the banks of Palisades Creek at 7 pm. It was still light but, at this point, we had two days and about 46 miles to go which we figured was pretty manageable and I wanted to enjoy at least one evening in the area without crash landing in the dark.
We made camp and got our food warmed up. Tonight is Adobe Bowl and I'm going to be shitting myself all day tomorrow - totally worth the tradeoff though. We fell asleep to the sound of Palisades Creek in the background. Tomorrow was going to be our last full day in the Sierra.
