Log: Day 116 - Mile 838.6

August 6, 2016

Even without an alarm set, and despite the late night, I woke early. Not wanting to disturb Isaac, I carried my stuff down the shore a ways before beginning my morning routine. I had hoped Isaac would be up before I set off so I could say goodbye, but there was no sign of movement from his tent.

Sunrise over the lake

I had a 2 hour descent down to Muir Trail Ranch. I didn't know what to expect of MTR having heard many mixed reviews about their friendliness towards hikers. The first thing I did when I arrived was to plug in electronics, conscious of any chance to charge up. Once that was taken care of I began wandering around to check the place out.

It did seem that the back packing crowd had monopolized much of this camp, originally meant for horseback travel. The staff seemed to have taken this as an inevitability, however, and had adapted. I have no data to back this claim with, but I would imagine that the demand for horseback travel experiences has decreased over the last two decades. MTR had begun supplementing their income by trucking in resupply buckets for hikers and trucking out their trash. Not nearly as romantic as horseback tours of the high Sierras, but they seemed to be doing alright.

Speaking of resupply buckets, those were next on my list to check out. I had heard from a few hikers that you could do a complete resupply from MTR's spare food but hadn't wanted to chance it. I absolutely could have and felt a pang of regret about the full resupply I had carried the last two days from Red's Meadow. I still had a ways to go, however, and I didn't care to become food-limited as I was already time-limited. I stocked up on snacks and a grabbed a few extra ramen - whatever would fit in my bear canister.

Swimming hole (actually 5+' deep)

Colby Meadow

The rest of the day was a long climb up through Evolution Valley and Colby Meadow. I stopped for an afternoon swim along the way. Swim is perhaps not quite the right word - I jumped in just long enough to get the salt off and to rinse out my hair before getting out of the snow-runoff Evolution Creek. The flies were out biting with a vengeance so I cut my stop short, ate a quick snack, and continued the climb.

The end of day held lots of alpine lakes separated by short climbs. I didn't see any other hikers during the afternoon and hiked alone through the barren raw terrain. It was pretty amazing being at this altitude, looking around, and being on roughly the same level as the surrounding peaks.

I arrived at Muir Pass and decided to call it a day. An octagonal stone shelter stood at the top and I was not about to pass up staying in it. There wasn't much sound at the pass to begin with, but even the wind was muted inside the shelter. It was strangely lonely. I set my ramen to soaking and curled up in my bag.