Day 13 was a very relaxing meander through Evolution Valley. I traveled 5 slightly downhill miles in 4 hours. That is slow. There was no real climbing the whole day as you can see in the elevation profile.
It was all downhill and only 11 miles.
My daily progress and major trail milestones can be seen at
https://caltopo.com/m/DKGD, or on Google Earth using
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9cy12lzxnuvatsa/2017.07.30_JMT_Actuals.kml?dl=0. The caltopo website is the best place to look to find the place name I use.
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| Day 13 elevation profile in yellow |
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| Day 13 route in blue |
I slept in a little bit and it was very marshy and damp where I camped my tent was wet and my sleeping bag was damp. The sun was still not over the mountains so I packed everything up wet and started walking. I hadn't gone far when I saw an opportunity for a view so I left the trail and scrambled up a hillside and around to this view below.
Evolution Valley is arguably the most beautiful place on Earth. Its trees, flowers, creeks, mountains and animals combine to make this very remote place idyllic. From my perch on the side of this mountain I could see the entire valley, Evolution Creek running through it, Colby Meadow, McClure Meadow and Evolution Meadow, all the way to where it drops quickly to meet the South Fork of the San Joaquin River. And at the head of it all, just out of frame on the left in the picture below, is The Hermit. The Hermit is a 12,328 foot mountain that rises over 2,000 ft from the valley floor. It is visible the entier length of the valley and dominates many of the spectacular views along the way.
With this prelude before me, I laid my gear out to dry, cooked breakfast, and enjoyed the most leisurely cup of coffee of the whole trip.
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| Looking over Evolution Valley |
Darwin Bench and Darwin Canyon, on the north side of Evolution Valley, lead to Lamarck Col. This is a popular cross country route to get into or out of the valley. The lakes in Darwin Canyon and Darwin Bench drain down to Evolution Creek. Despite the rocks I waded through wet foot style.
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| Darwin Creek Crossing |
Did I mention that The Hermit dominates many of the views from the valley floor. I swear it was following me, every time I turned around it was there. Evolution Creek does flatten out and get wide though much of the valley, but here it was still swift and "songful", as John Muir would have said.
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| Evolution Creek above Colby Meadow with The Hermit |
The first of three meadows along the valley is Colby Meadow. The creek is away from the trail for this part so the meadow, full of wildflowers, gets some attention.
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| Colby Meadow with The Hermit |
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| A bee in Colby Meadow |
I stopped for lunch at McClure Meadow. This buck was grazing in the meadow and looked up to see what I was doing. Deciding I was not a threat, he laid down among the tall grass so that others may not see him as well.
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| A young buck in McClure Meadow |
McClure Meadows was a great place to eat my lunch and enjoy the views. I wandered happily through this section of trail, stopping as often as I could, remembering to look over my shoulder. The Hermit was still following me.
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| Wildflowers in McClure Meadow with The Hermit |
Evolution Creek flows slow and wide through this part of the valley. The Hermit is there reliably, and standing guard on the other side are Mount Mendel (named after the father of genetics) and Mount Darwin (famous for studying pigeons and going on vacation to the Galapagos Islands).
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| Evolution Creek in McClure Meadow with The Hermit |
All of that peacefully flowing water meets a change in elevation, gravity takes over and the gentle creek becomes a ragin torrent of whitewater.
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| Evolution Creek below McClure Meadow |
Another tributary to Evolution Creek. This one flows down from Lake 11092 on the north side of Evolution Valley. Not designed for a high water year, this crossing is flooded for about three times the width of the stream. My socks got wet again.
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| Lake 11092 Creek crossing |
In late June and early July there were reports on the internet forums claiming that the main crossing of Evolution Creek was neck deep. Neck deep? That sounds like an exaggeration (I haven't made any exaggerations in the telling of my trip :-). At any rate, it does get deep enough often enough that the Park Service posted a permanent sign offering an alternative. This is a step beyond the piece of paper the ranger taped to the sign at the South Fork Kings River crossing on day 10. I decided to check out the main crossing for myself before making a decision.
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| Warning sign for Evolution Creek Crossing |
Mountain meadows are typically lakes that have been filled in with setiment. The glacier comes through and carves out the valley, leaving some low spots. The low spots fill with water and become lakes. Each year when the snow melts, setiment is carried into the lakes where it settles. Over the coursse of many years, the lake gets shallow enough that reeds grow out of the water. Eventually the lake bed gets higher than the surface of the lake and you have dry land. Meadows still trap a lot of water so it is too wet for trees to grow and they stay open. You can see this progression clearly starting with Evolution Lake, Colby Meadow, McClure Meadow and finally Evolution Meadow. There is less water and more dry land as you progress down through the valley.
The Hermit is still following me.
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| Evolution Creek in Evolution Meadow in Evolution Valley and, you guessed it, The Hermit |
Evolution Creek crossing is the biggest crossing of the trip. It was knee deep and moving swiftly and about 40 ft across. If it was truly neck deep in late June that would have been incredible. I decided not to go back and use the alternate crossing. Be sure to view the panorama picture to get the full effect.
My Sawyer Squeeze water filtration system has a soft bottle that the filter screws onto. The idea is that you can squeeze it into another bottle or drink directly from the filter. I much preferred the gravity method. Once I got it started it would filter the entire liter without my help. I could spend that time snoozing or drying my socks.
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| Gravity fed water filtration |
Below the crossing, Evolution Creek drops quickly to the South Fork of the San Joaquin River. The trail moves away from the creek for much of the descent, but you are presented with a few cascades before things get dry.
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| Waterfall on Evolution Creek below the crossing |
Muir Trail Ranch sits at the other end of this canyon. As I descended to the canyon floor below I felt as though my trip was over and that the next 100 miles was simply a way to get home. I had come through 14 days and 160 miles of uninterrupted wilderness and tomorrow I would be somewhere with electricity and buildings. Beyond that I would never be more than 3 days between access to a store and telephone. I had enjoyed the solitude that isolation had forced on me and I was not looking forward to giving it up.
As I walked along I forced myself to reset my expectations. Mentally I cut the trip into a separate section, as I had done at the top of Whitney. Tomorrow would be the transition from phase 2 to phase 3, and I would try to take it as it came.
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Shortly after the crossing Evolution Creek plunges 500 ft in half a mile into this valley to
meet the South Fork of the San Joaquin River |
At the bottom of the descent from Evolution Valley is the first of two bridges crossing the South Fork of the San Joaquin River. This one is upstream of the confluence with Evolution Creek. Still, a lot of water.
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| The bridge across the South Fork of the San Joaquin River at the Goddard Canyon trail junction |
On the map, the river under the bridge above and this crossing look the same. Only by looking at the area of the drainage would you guess that one would have more water than the other.
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| Mount Henry Creek crossing |
The second crossing of the South Fork of the San Joaquin river. This crossing would not have been possible this year without a bridge.
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| The bridge across the South Fork of the San Joaquin River below the confluence with Evolution Creek |
The South Fork of the San Joaquin is a delightfully noisy whitewater spectacle for most of the trip to Muir Trail Ranch.
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| South Fork of the San Joaquin River above Aspen Meadow |
I found this campsite next to this enormous old Lodgepole Pine. The little pinecones of the Lodgepole Pine were annoying but otherwise it was a great camp.
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| Camp 13. Aspen Meadow |
All photos of
Evolution Valley
All photos of
South Fork San Joaquin River
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