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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Ahhh, Clarks nutcracker- love that bird! Thanks for your beautifully detailed descriptions. Yours is one of the most enjoyable hike blogs to read. The sights, sounds, colors, and impressions set down bring your experience right to the readers. Thanks for sharing, PS I really like your bird sighting listings- fun to see how they change as you make terrain changes! - Mary the trail angel, Acton
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