John Muir Trail

Backpack, California, EasternSierras, Murica

John Muir Trail - Part III

We hiked the JMT Northbound starting at Cottonwood Pass and finishing at Happy Isles over 19 days with 1 day for resupply from Onion Valley.

See here for Part I.

See here for Part II.

Day 11 - Evolution Lake to Muir Ranch

An all downhill day, I told myself. We woke up leisurely, and started our way down to evolution valley around 9. The trail was nice and easy, and we came down into the valley fairly quickly. The downhill was followed by a nice flat trail with beautiful meadows around. We kept walking steadily and finally reached the next crossing at evolution creek. There was a sign saying cross here if the river is higher further ahead. Since we didn't know what the river conditions were like ahead, we decided to cross the river in the meadow. The water level was knee high and it was an easy crossing and a good decision to cross there. Soon, we were descending another set of steep switchbacks on our way to Muir trail ranch. The area seemed popular, we saw large groups of people camping after the switchbacks. The day was turning out to be quite long and I was slowing down. Soon we reached this amazing gorge formed by the San Joaquin river, and crossed a bridge that marked the end of Kings Canyon national park and the beginning of the Sierra National Forest. This is where I started to get really tired. The next few miles were a slog, but we finally made it to Muir Trail Ranch in time to pick up our resupply. After setting up our campsite, we decided to go to the Blaney hot springs. Getting to the springs entailed crossing a pretty large and swift river. Even though there was a rope to help people cross, the crossing was quite, lets just say, interesting and fun. The springs were really nice and hot and it was great to wash off the trail grime. We must have spent an hour or more in there, before we got enough warmth and decided to head back. Resupply day meant a pack of nice palak paneer for dinner, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Evolution lake at dawn

Evolution lake from the north

San Joaquin river enroute Muir Trail Ranch

Day 12 - Muir Ranch to Italy pass junction

The pass that seemed like would never come! Ironically, the easiest pass on the trail posed the hardest day for me. I wanted to leave early like the other days, but didn't. The late start and the annoyingly long switchbacks up to Selden pass killed my spirits. I must have been crawling, and it took me almost 3 hours just to get up to Sally Keys lake. I bawled for the first time on the trip, blaming PJ for not letting me leave early. I kept crawling up and it was a long time before I reached the pass. The view of Marie lakes from the pass, however, was breath taking. We kept going downhill from here, and crossed our next big creek, bear creek. This was much smaller and easier than evolution creek. This was also where we had our only encounter with terrible mosquitoes. We had initially wanted to camp here, but we literally ran to get away from the mosquitoes. We finally reached the junction to italy pass and I was tired enough to set camp. We did our usual cleaning up in the creek, and ate quickly so we can get away from the few mosquitoes around camp. We played some cards and then went back to sleep.

Panoramic view on the switchbacks leading up Seldon Pass

Sally Keyes lakes enroute Seldon Pass

Heart Lake

Marie lake from Seldon Pass

Marie Lake

Day 13 - Italy pass junction to Silver pass lake

Not wanting the excruciating experience from the previous day, I decided to leave early again. The first part of the trail was downhill, which I quickly covered and then started moving uphill towards bear ridge. The trail was nice and steady and went through a very pretty forest. After the ridge, there was a set of monstrous switch backs to go downhill. I was again thankful that I didn't have to climb up these. We descended into the valley and crossed a big bridge to hit the intersection of JMT and VVR. We took a small break to have lunch and I started my uphill walk towards Silver pass. The first unfortunate incident within the first 15 minutes was me falling into a river, I somehow managed to slip and put in one leg in the river, my other shoe and bag were thankfully dry. Since it was a hot day, I didn't mind that too much. The uphill was a bit steep with huge steps cut in the rock (thanks NPS!). It took me several hours to reach Silver lake, our camp for the night. Silver lake was incredible, and had a wonderful view all around it. However it was getting very cold, and I couldn't wait to eat and crawl into my sleeping bag.

The Silver Divide

Day 14 - Silver pass lake to Duck creek

The climb from silver lake to silver pass was quite short, and we were there in less than half an hour. We enjoyed the view of the beautiful Chief and Squaw lakes from the pass, and started our descent towards Tully hole. After a couple hours of downhill we crossed a bridge and finally reached tully hole. What a beautiful idyllic place! We started walking up on some nicely constructed switchbacks, and the valley below started looking prettier and prettier. I crawled along (walking slowly and getting tired in the second half of the day was pretty much the pattern for me) and eventually reached lake Virginia where we took a lunch break. The ground around the lake was littered with beautiful wild flowers, and it seemed like the perfect place to camp, but we had to move on. The descent from lake Virginia opened up the view to a beautiful valley. We soon reached purple lake and started walking uphill towards duck creek. This led to some more whining about uphills, and I eventually made it. Duck creek seemed like a popular campsite, given its a day's hike from Red's Meadow. PJ had come up early and found a nice little spot for our tent. I quickly went for a soak in the creek while the sun was still out, dried up and curled up inside the tent.

Silver Pass Lake

Chief lake from the top of Silver Pass

Chief Lake

Tully Hole

Panorama of the ridge above Tully Hole

Lake Virginia

Day 15 - Duck creek to Red's meadow

This was a relatively short day. The first 4-5 miles were fairly hot and dry. We had filled up our packs with water, and made really good pace. Took a short break at deer creek to cool ourselves down and eat some snacks. We stopped for a short time again to check out the red volcanic cones next to the trail and kept making good downhill pace. This was the best wildflower day so far, with valleys full of yellow, purple and white flowers. Before we knew it, we reached the burnt section near Red's meadow. As it was becoming increasingly hot, we quickly made our way to Red's Meadow. A sign there said 'Happy Isles 36 miles', almost there! This was the first place where we were crossing a road. The area was full of tourists and backpackers. We picked up our resupply pack, and chit chatted with several people. We caught up with a Canadian family with a 10 year old, whom we had met many times on the trail before, they were calling the hike done there and heading back. There was a couple from Colorado who we had also crossed path with several times, we chatted with them and they said they were glad to finally talk to some 'normal people', complaining about how the touristy folks around them found them 'inspiring', some fun! We gave some of our extra food to Balloon, a PCT through hiker, who we'd met a few times before. But what I was most looking forward to was a shower. There were hot water showers, complete with soap, shampoo and conditioner. I washed my hair, and washed the grime. After that I had the cheeseburger I had been dreaming of, and made way into the campsite. The campsite was crowded to say the least, and we setup our tent in a shared site. The evening was spent chatting with other backpackers, most of whom were south bound.