Day 55 - Fording Creeks

Day 55 - Tuesday, June 19
Evolution Creek (850.2) to N of Bear Creek (873.6)
Miles today - 23.4

We crossed Evolution Creek this morning, our first real ford where we had to get our feet wet. Up until then we had been able to get across every creek by using rocks and logs, some of them requiring a little creativity and balance. The water in Evolution was ice cold but not too deep, maybe a little below the knees.



We're lucky this is a really low snow year. Most years it can be up to waist deep and is notorious for being one of the most dangerous fords on the trail. No difficulty today, just wet shoes and numb toes.






Above: Leaving Kings Canyon National Park and entering the Muir Wilderness.

We climbed up to Selden Pass, just under 11,000'. It wasn't nearly as spectacular as the other passes we've done, and it was almost boring. Not that it wasn't beautiful. I think I'm just starting to take the scenery for granted. I would have killed for all these trees, lakes, streams, and mountains in SoCal. Now I have them in abundance all day every day.



Something else in abundance are the mosquitoes. From the top of the pass to the end of the day they've been in swarms everywhere. I have so many bites that I don't really even itch anymore, but they're still infuriating. I may break down and buy some bug spray. I was hoping to go the whole trail without using any. I don't care to put poison on myself.

We had another ford this afternoon to get across Bear Creek. This is another one that's usually problematic most years, but less than knee deep for us again.



Above: Fairway fording Bear Creek.

I stopped to cook dinner after the crossing to let my shoes dry out a bit while Fairway decided to keep moving. I never did catch back up to him. He wasn't where we planned on camping, probably because of the mosquitoes there. I'm sure he's just a mile or two up the trail and I'll try to catch him in the morning. This is the first time in a really long time that I'm not camped with other PCT hikers, but there are a couple John Muir Trail hikers here. They're in awe of what the other PCTers and I are doing and they asked a lot of questions.