Memories from June 12
Today’s main event was crossing Evolution Creek. It’s very deep, fast, and wide so at this point in the season we had to use an alternate route which is merely wide and deep but not fast. Still deep enough to prompt the quote of the day, “Is this a pants on break?” Which closely mimics the frequent question during group stops, “Is this a shoes off break?”. Photos exist but because this is a public blog and it was also cold, here’s the only one I took.
The morning started with the discovery that it had snowed. My poncho-tent doesn’t have much in the way if structure and so had bowed in and the walls were wetting my sleeping bag with condensation.
At least the view was pretty.
After extensive negotiations held in dramatic tones through closed tent walls, Camille and Lilly, Stitches, Bright Side and I decided to leave assuming we’d be warmer on the move. The negations were complicated by trees maintaining the illusion of precipitation by dropping snow and water on the tents.
After crossing the Evolution Creek Alternate we found a campsite at the bottom of a set of switchbacks. Camille, Lilly, and Bright Side spent and hour getting a proper fire going using my old paper maps, a lot of wet wood, and sometimes the help of hail and rain donated my Mother Nature. Once it got going, it was a thing of beauty. Eventually the rest showed up but not before we’d wondered if they’d decided to wait out the day’s weather.
In the early afternoon we carried on with the cooperation of the local clouds which compromised on keeping it to a spitting rain at most.
There were several bridge crossings which were much less involved than the morning’s river crossing.
Since I’m meeting a friend at Muir Trail Ranch for resupply and the rest were continuing to Vermilion Valley Resort or Mammoth for resupply, we eventually parted ways. I hope to see them down the trail.
After asking a guy at Muir Trail Ranch (closed until June 15) whether my friend had stopped by (no) and misunderstanding some directions he’d given me, I decided that the hot springs would be a good place to wait.
Unfortunately there was a river in the way. From some defeated hikers on their way back from it, it was hip deep just a few steps in. I went to see for myself and it appeared to be flowing faster than an most people can swim so I decided to spend the night at one of the many campsites placed, surprisingly, on the opposite side of the river from the hot springs. Apparently other people have had this issue as well
Mama Lion and her son Boon were camped nearby so I tried to start a fire. Despite our best efforts it never really got to the point where it could live for more than a few minutes without rescue breathing.
Out of nowhere Branden, my friend bringing the resupply showed up. He and his cousin Matt had camped at an earlier site which explained why he materialized without a backpack. I had dinner with them and returned to my site for the night.
Isaac Takes A Hike 