Day 68 – 29 May 19. Muir Pass and Big Miles

Today 28.6 km (17.8 mi), Total Distance 1373.3 km (853.3 mi). 10 hours 20 minutes (0630-1650)

I slept really badly last night. I wasn’t cold but could not seem to get comfortable. I woke to my alarm and once again had my internal battle to get up. It was 0 degrees C and felt it.

Once I was outside my tent it felt colder as there was a slight wind. I had my big thick socks and plastic bags on so my feet were warm but my fingers were numb by the time I finished packing everything up.

I put on my crampons and was away. The snow was perfect and I was able to walk normally, for the short time until the hills began. Firstly it was on the side of steep hills, climbing slightly and then straight up really steep hills. I was feeling better up the hills than I have for a while, though still needed a few mini breaks.

The trail was heading up a narrow valley. At one point some of the footprints stopped and put on snow shoes which was nice on the steep sidles and sometimes up the really steep hills. I was impressed with the capabilities of the snow shoes. They seemed to have the traction of crampons but were better in the softer snow.

I crested one of the steep hills and now had Lake Helen below me. I sidled along at the same height above the lake before dropping down and doing the last steep hill.

On this hill I was taking 50 steps and then stopping to rest. As I came over the crest of the hill I saw Muir Hut start to come into view. I had made the pass. Muir Pass is 3,644m (11,969 ft).

I took some photos Then explored the hut. There was a plaque outside explaining that it was named after John Muir and a newer plaque inside saying largely the same information. The hut was built in 1931 by the Sierra Club in honour of John Muir, a conservationist and writer. The hut is built in the same style as Italian backcountry huts.

I was lucky to have a beautiful day for the summit. Blue sky and no wind. The temperature had warmed up now and I stripped off a layer and took off my crampons as I readied for the descent.

The tracks of the snow shoes and some footprints could be seen for miles heading down the valley. I descended to the side of the tracks, still staying on top of the snow.

The descent wasn’t very steep. It dropped down to the side of a series of lakes which to me were just large flat snowfields. It is a pity I am not getting to see the lakes but I am enjoying the snowy mountain scenery.

The valley turned to the right and I kept going down the gentle descent, then a short steep bit down to Evolution Lake.

The trail was on the side of a steep slope and I started to slip a little so I dropped into the footprints. Where it was just the snow shoes I was fine walking but where the footprints crossed over it was annoying as they had been postholing a lot.

The snow was started to soften up now and I was sinking in every step so I stuck to the snow shoe prints.

At the northern end of the lake the snow shoe people stopped and set up camp. I could see where their tents were. Their last camp must have been in the dirt as the tent sites were brown. When they came back on trail it must have been early morning as they were just in their shoes.

There was a couple of uphill climbs and then the steep descent started. I followed beside the footprints for most of the steeper descents and the snow was generally ok, holding my weight when I dug my heels in. Sometimes it didn’t and I would slide down a little and then get into the footprints.

At one point there was a meter drop which I did not want to do so I kicked my own steps, grabbed a tree, went down some rocks and then re-joined the footprints.

Once down the steep bit it was winding through the pine trees. I am amazed at what the snow does around the pine trees. The accumulation of snow is not even and there are some really big mounds and some little mounds. What this means is when going through the pine trees it is a constant up and down and winding around finding the best path. It gets quite tiring as some of the ups are quite steep.

We were roughly following the river down hill. The snow was really soft by now so I was largely stuck following in the deep footprints which is also tiring as I was having to lift my feet high to get out of the holes each step.

I passed by a ranger hut and some fence posts. Apart from that it was all natural scenery. There were more birds about. I stopped for lunch and dried my tent out on a rock.

Not long after I started again I was crossing an open field of snow near the river when I saw a coyote. It did not see me so I could see it acting normal. It was walking along the river bank, stopping to look into the water occasionally. It was bigger than I was expecting, though it was very skinny. When it finally noticed me it ran off.

The next hour was more of the same, though there were a few rock patches appearing amongst the snow.
I knew there was a major river crossing across Evolution Creek. I had seen videos of people swimming across the raging river. As I had been following the river down I knew it was not running high.

At the crossing point I was pleased to see that it wasn’t even knee deep and was not going very fast. The only preparation I did was take off my gaiters and then I waded across with no trouble. The most difficult part was getting up the bank on the other side.

There had been no footprints at the crossing point. A pair of footprints overshot the crossing point and I had turned away from them. Once across there was some footprints coming from the alternate route for high rivers. I followed these prints which were quite old.

I headed up a hill to get some height from the river and then started dropping steeply. The snow was soft and I was sliding a little bit but controlled slides.

The footprints kept edging towards the river and going on the side of steep hills directly above the river. I was not comfortable with this so left the footprints and climbed straight up to get around the hill and away from the river.

Once I got up there were large rocky areas which I used to go down and then I cut across the trail which was largely clear of snow. I followed the trail as it zig zagged down the steep hill. Most of the time the trail was a stream but my feet were already wet from the river crossing and snow so I just splashed through. The snow patches were small and I was enjoying being able to walk normally.

Once down the bottom the snow was back and it was about 50/50 snow and dirt trail. The trail headed up to a wooden bridge over the South Fork of San Joaquin River. It then followed the river downstream. I was feeling good, probably because the trail was now at 2,500 meters, the lowest I have been since I started this section.

As I was descended the hill I had noticed the horrible grey clouds and rain in the hills up the valley so I was not surprised when it started raining. It was light to start so I put up my umbrella but then it started to get heavy and I decided to stop and set up camp a little early. I had done nearly 18 miles (28 km) so it was a good effort.

I backtracked slightly to a nice campsite under some trees and beside the river. I quickly set up camp and got under shelter. The temperature felt cold, even though it was over 10 degrees C. After about 30 minutes the rain stopped but I did not regret my decision.

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