Day 8 - Click on Map
Day 8 (August 2) we started out of our campsite above Little Pete Meadow and soon made our way to Big Pete Meadow. We headed up the trail alongside the Middle Fork of the Kings River and stopped to fish some in the river just down from the unnamed lakes in Le Conte Canyon. It turned out to hold no fish, so we packed up and started back up the trail. Today was a 3,000 foot ascent to Muir Trail and our half way point along the trip as far as days are concerned. As we forded the creek before the middle of the lakes, we ran into quite a group of people getting ready to head south on their trip. While we were running into some people along the way, we were starting to see more and more as we made our way north. This was a group of 11 people, and there was also other smaller groups dodging around them.

As we went past the unnamed lakes we spotted many Mountain Yellow Tailed Frogs sunning themselves along the shore and on the rocks of the lake near the shore. The tadpoles were quite large. This lake was full of the frogs along the way. After taking photos of the frogs and tadpoles we made our way up towards Helen Lake and Muir Pass. For days now, we had been told of the snow and the "fun" we would have climbing up to the pass. As we started up the climb towards Helen Lake, we began to run into the various snow patches and we could see what they had been talking about. None of them were dangerous, but they made it more difficult to negotiate the trail and to find the trail up the hill, since most of the traffic was southbound, the trails in the snow were vertical climbs for us. Any of the northbound footsteps were long gone with the recent rains. We had to forge our own trails or climb straight up the southbound glissades! We wound up doing some of both!

On the way up we ran into a family with a golden retriever. Not sure it was legal to have the dog in the park on the trail, but it was nice to see the dog, as it reminded me of our late dog Annie. This dog too was having some problems dealing with the rocks, as Annie often did we she went with us on the day hikes outside Las Vegas. We also ran into a nice lady coming down the pass who was doing the JMT solo. She was taking about 20+ days and was getting ready to set up her next resupply over on the east side of the Sierras. You can see a different perspective in the JMT through hikers coming southbound, as they are focused on their trip and at this point in their hike they are in the home stretch. For us, we are still in the beginnings of the trips, where the days and nights on the trail are still being logged and the time away from family is starting to wear on us. Mike had mentioned this to me that he experienced this sort of melancholy on previous trips, and I was experiencing it myself right now. I was missing my wife and wondering why and the heck I signed myself up for this trip. Much of this was probably due to the 3,000 foot climb we were doing today with the last 1,000 feet dodging snow fields much of the way!

Around Helen Lake we had some interesting snow fields to cross and work our way around as the downhill tracks seemed to fall right into the creeks and snow run off. We made our way around Helen Lake for the final climb to Muir Pass. We had to cut some switchbacks into the snow, as we were both a little too tired to go straight up! We finally started rounding the crest where the hut roof comes into the view. While it took us about an hour more than expected to get up the pass, we finally made it to the top and proceeded to battle the Muir Hut Marmots for a lunch spot! We sat down and had some nice lunch and got our pictures taken by a nice family doing the JMT northbound as well. The pictures of the two of us turned out nice, but boy had we aged. My beard no longer shows anything but grey! I had also noticed that this nice family was having a large bag of potato chips on the pass. Now is this right? I mean here we all are in the middle of nowhere and they have this nice bag of potato chips. Could I run fast enough to grab the bag and down the hill never to see them again? Probably not, so we settled on our Top Ramen soup and tortillas and peanut butter! At the top of the pass we also met up with John, a nice gentleman from Florida doing the JMT solo northbound as well. He had started two days after us and had caught up with us on Muir Pass! As we continued along the trip, we could see why he was able to make such miles! His 6 foot plus frame gave him a stride that seemed like he was meandering along the trail, but he was probably making a good 3 mile an hour clip with his normal stride!

We headed down the pass and towards Wanda Lake and Lake McDermand. As we started away from Wanda Lake, we had to cross several creeks and seasonal streams. One side tributary was about 3 to 4 inches deep and as we started to rock hop across this four foot wide obstacle, we spooked 3 golden trout that were each about 6 to 7 inches long. One of them was so spooked that it swam right out of the water onto the trail. Mike being the good Samaritan, picked it up and helped it back into the stream. At this the fish proceeded to get really spooked and swam out of the creek onto the trail on the other side. So Mike again eased the fish back in and guided him down stream. Two good deeds for the day. However, this turned south when he informed me that he would count these towards his daily catch! He said after all he did catch and release the fish twice and that counted as a catch for him! Darn, if I knew that counted I would have used this technique more often.

As the sky started to cloud up again we made our way past Sapphire and Evolution Lakes and down into Evolution Valley. It was starting to get late and our plans were to make it past the ranger station in McClure Meadow. We traded trail leads with John, the solo hiker we met at the top of the pass, and he finally settled into his camp at the base of the climb out of Evolution Valley for southbound hikers. We said our goodbyes and headed down canyon past Colby Meadow and towards McClure Meadow. We made it past the ranger station about 5:30 and started looking for a nice spot. Well Mike can be a little particular about spots, as well as myself at times, but tonight was not my time! Our original plan was to hike to about 6 pm or past the ranger station and find a nice spot. Well at 5:45 we were past the ranger station looking for a nice spot and I figured we had made better time, so the 6 pm goal had been beat, so let's find a nice spot. Mike on the other hand seemed to think we still had about 15 minutes left on the agenda to continue to hike down river to find that nice spot. I let him know that if he wanted to hike down river some more to find a nicer spot that was fine, but he better find a spot within 5 minutes because my tank was empty and running on fumes! He gave me this little look and commented that I may be getting a little testy right now! But he acquiesced and found a nice spot within my allotted time frame of five minutes. Another day down and we figured the half way mark time wise was at the top of Muir Pass. We were now on the home stretch!

To view photos of our trip please refer to the Photo Albums section of this site!