Day 64

We surprisingly made it to Muir Pass before sunrise and it quickly became my favorite pass. The Muir Hut, the thru hikers, the snow, a peak of the sunrise, and the early morning sky in the background was just perfect. We spent a good hour inside the warm hut.

The hike down from Muir Pass was miles of snowfield, with beautiful frozen lakes along the way, including Wanda Lake, Sapphire Lake and the amazing Evolution Lake. We gracefully crossed the outlet of Evolution Lake since we stayed on the opposite side of the trail. We even recrossed it as we made a video on how to do a water crossing properly.

We made our down the valley and we stopped at the McClure Meadow Ranger Station where we met a Forest Ranger named Dario who has worked for the Forest Service for 43 years. Very cool to work in the backcountry.

Since it is a high snow year and with all the snow melting turning creeks into raging rapids, we decided to take the Evolution Creek alternative. It was waist deep but was not fast moving. We felt safe crossing it but we still did our i-formation because there are some parts that are deeper in some, and having all five of us means we are much more stable to prevent anyone from slipping and falling into the water.

After crossing safely, we set our packs down and each of us fully immersed our body in the cold water for at least 30 seconds. It was freezing cold but it was refreshing afterwards. It was fun!