Day 10: Evolution Basin to LeConte Canyon

I wake up numerous times throughout the night. My tent was shaking violently in the wind. I thought to myself, "If I hear one crack of thunder, I am booking it to some cover". Luckily, the rain stopped and we awake to a calm, and eerie morning.

Weird morning in Evolution Basin

We didn't bother making breakfast, we would just eat in the Muir Pass Hut, so we set off on the trail. Jeff way ahead per usual, and Erica and I hanging back at a steady pace. I think Erica and I both were feeling the effects from the long day of hiking yesterday and were eager for this day to already be over. 

As great as the night hike was, we were paying for it now. 

The trail climbed up past Wanda Lake, its' waters so smooth that it almost seemed abnormal. The trail then wound through some boulder fields and past Lake McDermand before starting it's final climb up to Muir Pass.

While hiking along the trail you can see the Muir Pass Hut from a few miles away, even though it is made out of stone, the man-made object sticks out pretty well. It's almost torture though, seeing it in the far distance, knowing you're only a few miles away.

You can see the Hut just on top of the pass

Erica and I looking back down into Evolution Basin

The climb wasn't too bad to the pass and we joined Jeff and Chops in the Hut for some breakfast. I take the time to look around at the markings in the hut, it was donated by the Sierra Club in honor of John Muir. Jeff makes some hot tea for us and we hang for a little while longer.

Muir Hut in the clouds atop Muir Pass

Muir Hut

Plaque on the side of Muir Hut

Plaque inside of Muir Hut

Muir Hut looking north towards Evolution Basin

We hear the rain start to fall again, so we dawn our rain gear and set back out on the trail, wanting to get to lower elevation in case of a thunderstorm. The rain comes and goes as we descend from the pass, the scenery is very beautiful with large lakes cut out between giant granite peaks. We start to hit the treeline when the rain really picks up and the dark clouds come over the ridge.

Erica and her rain gear descending Muir Pass

Trail descending Muir Pass

It was very ominous because the storm clouds were rising over a peak called The Black Giant. Needless to say, I thought this was a bad sign. We tried to call ahead for Jeff who we could see off in the distance, but the rain was too loud for him to hear our voices. 

Sadly, this was the last time I would see Jeff,  as he sauntered off down the trail. 

My last picture of Jeff.

The rain got so bad that Erica and I booked it for some tree cover to set up our tents. We were literally sprinting over rocks and boulders to get to what looked like a safe grouping of trees. I saw another tent about 200 yards away that looked like Jeffs' tent, so after setting up my tent, I ran in the downpour to see if it was him. It wasn't, it was another hikers' tent. I returned to my tent and climbed inside.

About an hour later, the clouds dissipated and the sun shown ironically right over The Black Giant. I yelled out to Erica, that we have a good opportunity to get to lower elevation. So we packed up our makeshift camp and continued down the trail.

Erica preparing for the rain.

In the meantime, the view of Leconte Canyon from our elevation were absolutely beautiful! No pictures sadly, due to the rain. 

Not after 10 minutes back on the trail, the storm clouds are back and pouring down more rain. Erica and I decide to just keep hiking to our planned campsite in Big Pete Meadow. The wet trail was not easy to navigate, with slippery rocks and mud, one bad step could make this bad day even worse.

I love the rain!

We get to Big Pete Meadow and sadly, Jeff was not there. We were both very tired from hiking in the rain, that we decided to just set up camp. I take about a 3 hour nap, and wake up to make some dinner. Erica and I discuss our next day plans, I would be leaving the John Muir Trail over Bishop Pass and Erica was debating on exiting as well due to fatigue. 

I go to bed early tonight, but take a while to fall asleep because I am slowly realizing that my time in the wilderness is coming to an end. I was just trying to take in all of the memories and experiences I had. It had been 10 days but I had barely been keeping track, it had a been a great adventure thus far.

Day Summary:

Miles Hiked: 12  mi
Total Miles on JMT: 135.9 mi                                                         Day 11: LeConte Canyon to Bishop

Day 9: Muir Trail Ranch to Evolution Basin

Woke up early this morning with the sound of the San Joaquin River moving only a few feet away from my tent. Jeff and I told Erica we would meet her at 10am at Muir Trail Ranch. So we go to sleep in a bit, which was really nice.

We packed up camp and headed back to MTR to meet up with Erica. We hung out at MTR for a while, resupplied on some food and got some fresh water. Around 10:15am or so we set out back out on the trail.

Trail leaving MTR

We all hiked pretty spread out today, it was nice to hike in solitude for the most of the day. The trail followed along the San Joaquin River for some time before coming to a bridge over Piute Creek. This marked the trail now entering Kings Canyon National Park. I stood on the bridge for a few minutes taking in the scenery and reflecting on my journey thus far. It was pretty incredible to me how far I had traveled by foot, never in my life would I have thought I could do this!

 Bridge over Piute Creek

Now entering Kings Canyon!

I continued down the trail and for once it was pretty wooded, occasionally poking out into the granite canyon that the San Joaquin was roaring through.

Trail in the woods along the San Joaquin

San Joaquin River

I caught up to Jeff at another bridge that cross the river, we continued on for a few miles, then stopped to take a short break before we had to climb up to Evolution Valley. We ran into a pack horse train coming down the trail, it amazes me that to get any work done out here that they have to bring all equipment in on horseback, so cool!

Jeff along the bridge

Jeff again on the bridge

Pack train coming through

We began the climb up to Evolution Valley. The climb wasn't too steep, just seemed a bit long. Once you start nearing the end of the climb you can hear the roaring of Evolution Creek, that runs through the valley. From reading other hikers trail journals, I knew this would be a tricky river crossing with the creek being pretty wide. But, with it being so late in the summer, the creek wasn't very deep and was easy to cross.

Looking back while climbing into Evolution Valley

Evolution Creek

Jeff and I hiked a few more miles before stopping to eat and wait for Erica. We found a nice shaded spot and rested. Today wasn't too strenuous, or maybe I just felt better because of my hot spring soak last night.

Erica came strolling along and urged us to cut our break short and hike another mile or so and break in McClure Meadow. And boy, was she right! We hiked another mile or so (Jeff did this part in his Crocs!) and the views of the meadow were unbelievable.

Evolution creek running through McClure Meadow

My favorite place on the trail!

We hung out here for a while and ate a little bit before continuing down the trail. We planned to camp just above Colby Meadow.

Jeff and Erica taking in the sights.

Erica and Jeff relaxing

More relxing

We arrive at the camp site and it was pretty awesome. Secluded in the woods and right next to a waterfall, can't get any better than that right? We set up camp and started to make dinner, we were all very happy with our camp for the night.

Creek from our campsite.

My tent at our best "campsite" ever.

Jeff and our camp on the granite slab.

Waterfall next to our campsite.

Enjoying the waterfall!

Jeff soaking his feet

Then Chops came along. The previous night, we had discussed with Chops the possibility of doing a Night Hike on the trail, and Chops wanted to go tonight. This would mean giving up our amazing campsite.

After much pondering, we all decided to go for it. We packed up and gear and said goodbye to our campsite. The trail rose about 1200 feet into the Evolution Basin and the view were amazing. Unfortunately, I did not have a nice camera to take any photos of it, so I'll try to describe it as best we could.

The moon was so bright we didn't even need our headlamps, the trail was fully illuminated with moonlight. The granite all around the basin was so lit up you could see the most details on the rocks. I felt like I was walking on the moon.

Our goal for the night was to make it to the Muir Hut on top of Muir Pass, only a few miles along the trail, but all started to get pretty winded and tired. The temperature had really dropped as well and it was getting pretty hard to hike with tired muscles. We set up campsite somewhere near Sapphire Lake in the basin, about 200 feet from the water. The only thing was that we had zero tree cover and were pretty exposed in the basin, this concerned me a bit, and rightfully so. This evening it rained really hard and the wind was violently shaking my tent all night. I have no idea how I slept through it. I would occasionally wake up to the sound of thunder off in the distance.

Chops packed up his camp sometime around 4am and headed for Muir Hut. The sound of the rain slapping on the tent was so loud that we had to yell at each other to understand what we were saying. Erica, Jeff and I waited out the storm and woke up in the clouds, literally.

Waking up to this was a little freaky

Evolution Basin

What a wild day/night!

Day Summary:

Miles Hiked: 15.1  mi
Total Miles on JMT: 123.9 mi                                    Day 10: Evolution Basin to Leconte Canyon