Clicking the blue trace on the map above will give GPS statistics about that day's hike. Their accuracy can vary greatly.
Click "Play" below to listen to the Day 19 audio journal.
June 12, 2015
Day: 19 Daily Miles: 45 Total Miles: 878.75 Hours Hiking: 16.2
 |
| The morning sun kissing the peaks around Muir Pass...the trail is a creek. |
June 12, I made it 45 miles to point 0330914 E 4143234 N UTM. It was a good day, I kinda knew it would be, because once you top out at Muir Pass, there's about a 20 mile down...yeah you have a couple climbs after that but, Selden is a pretty easy pass, and then you have to climb up and out of Bear Creek...I started my day off at my nice little campsite that was protected from the rain up above 10,000 ft, about 3.5 miles from the top of Muir Pass. I got a pretty good start, at about 5:45 am or so...I'm rrreeeaaalllyyy glad I stopped there....there was pretty much no good camping, at all, further on...a little ways after where I was, treeline hit. It was good, it was either push or stop there and so be it that I stopped early...I can always make up the miles sometime later. I pushed on...it was kind of what I expected, lots of water, lots of climb up this, climb up that, avoid some snow, avoid some water....figure out how to cross this....that's what is nice about Muir Pass, is that it's kind of easy, it's long, but its more of a roller, so you don't have to go steeply up one side...you just slowly work your way, and then, there you are.
 |
| Mostly froze still, Helen Lake watches the sunrise. |
It was a gorgeous sunrise!! There were big clouds still in the sky and the intermittently were lighting up all the peaks surrounding me. Helen Lake was still frozen, lots of snow around...it was just a really dramatic and beautiful morning. So, I finally get up to Muir Pass, I see Muir Hut stand there and the sun strikes me from behind, creating a shadows of me, lighting up Muir Hut....hopefully I got a really cool picture...and then....I dropped my camera about 6 feet onto a rock...granted the LCD screen was already broken...but all it did was make the LCD screen worse. It hit on the side of the camera and tied to pop the back plate off...but, It still works!!!, which I am super happy about... I can't necessarily see what I am taking pictures of and I assume it's correctly taking pictures, but, other than that I....(laughs)... from a 6 foot fall, it still works, that's great. I can only see about a 1 cm strip [of the LCD screen] on the far left side, which is perfect because that's the side where all of the controls are at and I can tell how to get the HDR mode on or off...but man, that was pretty crappy!.....
DAY 19, Part 2.
 |
| A dramatic morning and I reach Muir Pass with Muir hut just as the sun does. |
So yeah, I dropped the camera, but it works and that makes me happy because, if it didn't work, I would have missed some taking some really really epic, epically pretty shots. All the way from the top Muir Pass, going down towards Evolution Lake, the trail was covered up here and there by snow, so you kinda just make your own path. The lakes were still, more or less, frozen, with cracks running through them, so they are thawing. Again, the clouds and the sun were playing with all the mounts, creating a very dramatic scene, with shadows and things. It was a bit cool, but great. Looking ahead of me, there is a big wall [of mountains] on the east side of Evolution Lake and it was black with dark clouds and it spit on me for a good mile as I was slowly going down next to the lake, which thankfully didn't keep occurring because I really don't want more rain. It's one of those things that pisses me off. It was fairly straightforward after that. A lot of downhill, and once I go by Evolution Creek, I zoned out for about 15 miles or so by listening to an audio book......(whispers "hold on" then a large pause with other hikers)..... I topped out at Evolution Lake and then you drop down pretty sharply and then you're at Evolution canyon/basin and walk and walk and walk through the trees, with mosquitoes....
 |
| Wanda Lake passed Muir Pass. |
I actually met Justa, Lint's girlfriend, which was great. We talked about for 25 minutes or so. She was airing some stuff out and gave me the lowdown on what was going on. I got to the Evolution Creek crossing...crossed it really quickly, no shoes on....dropped down, and then the hot, boring river walk, for another 7 miles until the switchbacks up to the beginning of Selden Pass. Again, at about 11:00 am, my face flushed, I got really hot...I don't know what's going on. I've been trying to think of all the possibilities...maybe its the sunscreen? is it lack of sunscreen? is it sugar intake? blood sugar? All kinds of stuff and nothing really seems to correlate. Thankfully, it didn't seem to last a very long that time. I don't know why, but sometimes it sticks around, sometimes it doesn't. I finally got to the switchbacks...they are pretty much the hardest part on the climb up to Selden Pass. I put my head down and started counting. It took about 4,500 steps to make it up the steep and hot switchbacks. The nice thing about Selden, is that once you do the switchbacks you've done the majority of the elevation. It's actually pretty easy to get to the summit, which makes it great. The mosquitoes really started happening, which was a bummer when I had to take a poo...they swarmed and bit me and tied to drink me alive! All the while, a bid dark thunderstorm was chasing me up the mountain... I peaked out and summited I guess, behind me the big thunderstorm, ahead of me was pretty clear, so I hurried on down into the basin....probably about an hour down, a few miles, it started to actually rain pretty good on me, so I stopped for about 10-15 minutes and took a break, to see if it would pass and give myself a rest. The rain actually passed and it began to clear.
 |
| Wanda Lake - The most beautiful day of all 2015! |
At that point I was about 10 miles away from getting my 40, so I figured I might as well take some caffeine, which would get me up through the climb out of Bear Creek, and from there it's literally all downhill to a 40...and to however many more miles I could do. I was thinking 45-46.... I got some caffeine in me, feeling good, and just started jammin' it....down the hill...across Bear Creek with no shoes...that went pretty quick...jammed it down Bear Creek. The climb wasn't nearly as hard as I had remembered it...it was actually fairly well graded. The approach was a little longer than I remembered, but otherwise, I got to the top of it and went "Ohh that wasn't too bad.." granted, I did have caffeine...It wasn't terrible, I was feeling really gooood. Once you hit that point...I was pretty much at mile 40...anything after that was a bonus. I needed to hit 42 to make up for the previous days 38...that way I would at least average 40 through the Sierras, which my schedule has me down for. By that time, the sun hadn't set yet and it was all downhill to the VVR ferry area, and I kept bookin'.
 |
| Summit of Selden Pass looking north at the thickening clouds. |
I got a very nice sunset off some clouds, you could tell it had rained earlier, the air was moist....down we went and basically around 8:30 I hit the VVR ferry area, so it was just starting to get a little dark, but I could still see and had one more mile or so to go. I pushed it, went up the hill and got a little start on the Silver Pass climb. At mile 880, I found a nice treed area, smoothed out a flat spot and had a great night's sleep with no mosquitoes and no one else. I had made a little headway on the Silver Pass climb, so all in all it was a great day, no weather really, I mean a little tiny bit, but I can deal with that...it didn't ruin the end of my day and make me not make my miles, so that made me happy...For the most part, I felt pretty good, just truckin', I managed to keep the foggy haze away...it started to come, but then I started talking to Justa and it seemed to go away...it's definitely something mental and has to do with focus maybe? I don't know. I wish I could figure it out, to help myself not feel that way, because it really is a bad....it doesn't make me fell good. We'll see. Hopefully tomorrow will be another big day and I can possibly call Leah from Reds Meadows and update her that I will probably be arriving in Tuolumne Meadows on the 13th at about...I think....wait, wait, whats today? shit....the 14th I mean, at about noon or so...If I do a 45 today, I'll be within about 20 miles of Tuolumne Meadows, so that should be about midday or so...wonderful.
 |
| The beautiful sunset over Lake Edison and the VVR Ferry. |
 |
| Full 180 degree panorama of Wanda Lake after Muir Pass. |
