A long day ahead of us, so an early start to the day. Our human alarm clock, Mike T., tapped on my tent about 5:20. The skies had largely cleared overnight. Beautiful light this morning. Despite all the rain yesterday, all the laundry had dried except my outer wool socks. No problem - I had a second pair with me for just such a scenario. Lots of wet/damp stuff to pack up - fly, tent, sleeping bag.
We were on the trail by shortly after 7 and started with a hike around the east side of Evolution Lake to a crossing of its outlet at the south end.
The climb up to Muir Pass was about 1000 feet; gradual but a bit rocky in places. We passed a few more gorgeous creeks and lakes on the way up - most notably Sapphire Lake and Wanda Lake. Wanda Lake is named for one of John Muir's daughters and was where we saw some yellow-legged frogs. The landscape was stark but beautiful (in my opinion, anyway). I (again) took lots of pictures, and can't chose which ones to post so I'm throwing a bunch of them on here.
I know nothing about geology, but I was pretty excited today to see some additional colour in the rocks. Apparently we are now seeing metamorphic rock as well as granite. Makes me realize just how lucky we are to have the variety of rocks, colours and orientations that we do have in the Canadian Rockies.
I believe this is Helen Lake.
Water, water, everywhere. One of my favourite days so far!
And a visit into the jaws of the trail monster............
Shortly after lunch, the clouds returned and it started to rain and hail. Although the scenery was still gorgeous, I didn't bother with any pictures. It rained for about an hour, stopped and then started again. We came across a trail crew doing repairs to the trail - man, that looks like hard work! We got in to camp about 4, just got the tents set up and it started raining again. Also shortly after we arrived, we had visitors - our resupply had arrived! It came in via mule train - 2 horses with riders + 3 mules. They had ridden in via Bishop Pass. We have lots of leftover food. The primary reason for that is that the food was packed up before Sarah & David left the trip. So - Katie & Alex put out a box by the trail and encouraged hikers to help themselves (which most did). We also invited some passing hikers and one lady camped nearby to join us for dinner. We got a fire going before dinner and used it to help dry out some clothes and laundry.
There is supposed to be a clearing trend tomorrow. We'll keep our fingers crossed! The rain started again about 8PM - just after dinner............ Lots of deer around this camp - 2 fawns, 2 young bucks, some does; none of them very shy. Poor Katie had a rough day today - endless teasing. Long story, but some young man that she had given some leftover cake to on day 3 had bestowed on her the trail name "Future Wife". We crossed paths with them again today and Alex & J (and others) had the whole thing turned into a Backcountry Bachelorette TV series by dinnertime. This just wouldn't die and the torture went on for days, although she took it in stride as she did with everything that was thrown her way.
Stats for the day: about 13 miles, 1740 feet up, 3660 feet down. Elevation at camp - about 8700'. Note that in most of the parks and wilderness areas that we have been in, fires are not permitted above 10,000'. So - fortuitous that we're allowed to have a campfire today, when we could really use & appreciate it.
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