Muir Ranch Re-supply
Mouse Circus
After dinner, Craig liked to retire to his tarp-tent and bag, write in his log, and plan the next day’s trek. At the Piute Creek campground, Craig was just getting into his bag, when he noticed a mouse quickly dashing along the inside of his tent. He opened the mosquito net zipper, but the mouse, in a panic, just sped around the inside of the tent. He was going over and around everything, and Craig was getting agitated too, and started chasing him around. From several yards away in my own tent, I noticed the ruckus, and said, “Hey, what’s going on?" Craig finally lifted up the whole side of his tent, and the mouse took off. Naturally, I gave him a hard time, but later had my own rodent problems.
Our next stop was the Muir Trail Ranch. We had supplies to pick up there, and they had to last us for the next week. Muir Trail Ranch is a dude ranch, and hikers are not their focus. They do an important service for hikers, though, since this is the last place close to the trail where you can pick up a supply package. A ranch hand opened up the supply shed, and looked for our packages. It was late in the season, and yet the shed was full of packages. When we asked, he said, this was an unusually wet year, and a lot of hikers quit their hikes early. While the ranch doesn’t have a lot of supplies for sale, they do have a few items including butane canisters.
There is a hot spring not far from the ranch and we had wanted to take a dip. We were pretty tired though, and still had a few miles to hike before reaching our camp for the night, so we decided to skip the dip.
King's Canyon:
Some stretches of the JMT are stony or otherwise unsuitable for camping. As a result, established campsites can collect a lot of hikers. That was the case at the Piute Creek campground just inside King's Canyon National Park. There were at least thirty people there. We thought it looked like a bear magnet! And indeed we did have critter problems that night, but not with bears (see the side story).
Evolution Valley:
Evolution Creek
The next morning, we began a long gradual climb. By noon, we were getting tired, but still had to make the really steep climb up to Evolution Valley. This was exhausting, but we were rewarded with some spectacular scenery including the tumultuous waterfalls along Evolution Creek. The Winnett and Morey guide book mentions several creeks which are dangerous in the early season, but by late August when we were there, most streams can be crossed by rock-hopping. Evolution Creek was one of the few streams we actually had to ford. After this crossing, the valley opens up presenting a series of meadows. We thought mosquitoes would be a problem, but only encountered a few. The trail climbs gradually, and there are successively higher meadows and lakes along the way. By late afternoon, the sun was lighting the open basin beautifully, and we started looking for a campsite. We tried to avoid grassy meadows, but the only reasonable site we could find was in a tiny meadow near Evolution Lake.
Not long after setting up our simple camp, we saw Doug and Tamara once again. We invited them to join us for dinner, and after setting up their camp a bit further up trail, they came over, and we talked and ate. Doug told us that they planned to hike out to Bishop for re-supply. They were a bit worried about their schedule, because they had to catch a flight back to the East Coast at the end of their hike, and making it was going to be tight. After dinner, we said good-night and finished a few camp chores.
I had a little piece of plastic that could hold some water if laid out in a depression. It made a simple wash basin, and I used it to rinse out my shirt. We were well above tree-line, about 11,000 feet, so I just wrung it out and laid it over some rocks to catch the last rays of sun-light. It was very calm and clear, so I just got into my bag and left my other gear laying within reach. Early the next morning, a wind came up and woke us. I managed to grab everything light except the current map section. This sailed like a kite, and I watched the thermals lift it higher and higher. The day was not starting out well! Then I remembered my shirt—it was still on those rocks, or at least I hoped it was. I found it a short distance away, but it had several little tears. Some mice had found it during the night and chewed on it. Perhaps this was my karma for camping on the meadow!
Muir Pass