June 23. Day 53.

Bivy near mile 822 to Evolution Lake (mile 844.5).

Miles hiked: 22.5

Finishing the Golden Staircase switchbacks as the dawn turns to day, with Fox Sparrows and Lazuli Buntings busy alongside the trail, then down into the forest again. Much of today was be down in the forest, with 10 miles of trail following Palisade Creek down to its meeting with the Middle Fork of the Kings River, then up that toward Muir Pass. The grade is gradual and I cruise along at a pretty good pace, knowing that today is a day to make up some miles pretty easily. Around 7 I rounded a little bend and startled a bear that was pretty much in the trail. It went crashing off into a willow thicket and I didn't get a very good look, but another bear was about 30 meters off the trail, and seemed not to notice me. I got to watch it for about a minute as is slowly ambled up toward the talus where I guess maybe it was headed to nap for the day. This is the way bear encounters should be: they're either scared of us, or ambivalent to our presence. Thanks NPS for keeping the bears wild.

Bearely even noticed me.

The trip up along the Kings was spectacular, with big granite domes towering over the river meandering through meadows or tumbling over boulders. In the afternoon the trail began to climb up out of the forest for the long gradual approach to Muir Pass. Since I had crossed Muir before, I wasn't fooled by the false passes the trail goes over, and instead patiently enjoyed the walk as the trail twisted left and right around steepening rocky outcrops and traced gingerly along the edge of the river where it cut through little gorges. The rocks ranged from light pink through various reds to dark browns and black. The hulking peak called Black Giant loomed overhead, separating where I was from a place called the Ionian Basin, a place very high on my list to visit.

Middle Fork of the Kings River.

At the top of Muir Pass there was quite a scene, with 4-5 people doing on-camera interviews over to one side, a few other almost-hiker-looking people sitting around, and inside the old stone hut was a large format camera and several people sketching and taking measurements of the interior. It turns out the stone hut is about to be placed on the federal registry of historic buildings (it was built in 1930, in partnership between the Forest Service and the Sierra Club), and these people were up here as part of that process and for a little dedication ceremony. They even had a cellist up there with his instrument, and he was going to be playing at dusk.

Looking back down to the SE on the climb up Muir Pass.

That was still a few hours away, and I didn't want to wait that long, so kept walking on down past Wanda Lake (Helen Lake was on the south side of the pass, these two named after John Muir's daughters), then down in to Evolution Basin, guarded with peaks with names like Darwin and Mendel. These were all named in the '20s and '30s, and Wallace didn't get one.

Cooperative Trailside Pika.

I made it another few miles down to the outlet of Evolution Lake a bit before sunset, and decided to camp there since I'd already made good miles and wanted to avoid going down into Evolution Valley where I thought the mosquitoes would be horrendous. I had a quick dip in the lake then a pretty lazy dinner while the sunset did its glowing thing and a couple Long-tailed Weasels hunted among the boulders and wildflowers.

Evolution Lake sunset.

Birds:

Stellar's Jay 

Fox Sparrow 

Wilson's Warbler 

Lazuli Bunting 

Hammond's Flycatcher 

Hermit Thrush 

Yellow-rumped Warbler 

Brown Creeper 

Oregon Junco 

Warbling Vireo

Sooty Grouse 

Western Wood-pewee 

American Robin 

Mountain Chickadee 

Green-tailed Towhee 

Hairy Woodpecker 

Red-breasted Sapsucker 

Song Sparrow 

Western Tanager 

White-crowned Sparrow 

Clark's Nutcracker 

Gray-crowned Rosy-finch