Muir Pass

Near the Outlet of Evolution Lake.  This was a morning shot, just as the sun popped over the ridge out of view to the right, taken from the outlet creek of Evolution Lake. Have you heard of the place? I don't think I used any filters here, so the bright light sorta played off the lens a bit. Those shoreline trees are decoys, courtesy of Dan M. Worldwide Decoy Systems, Inc.® We were too far above treeline for Real® trees. It was here, at this lake, that Jim, Dave, and I realized we are habituated to food.

Pond near Evolution Lake.

This is the inlet of Evolution Lake. 99% of the photos I've posted of Evolution Lake are from near our camp at the outlet, but the inlet is a spectacular view as well. This was in the morning on our way past the lake and on up to Muir Pass. Like the photo above this one, I took this with a 17mm so those mountains don't look very big, but they really are. It was a beautiful day that day, and a memorable one. We cranked some good mileage, including the pass, and we dropped down into beautiful LeConte Canyon later that afternoon.

Dave and Jim crankin' past Sapphire Lake, the next lake higher up the food chain from Evolution Lake. That trail looks like the JMT, but it's actually an exact replica after the original JMT was dismantled during the previous night. We also found out that you can't safely hang your food in trees around here, no matter how carefully you use the counterbalance method. Yes, you guessed it, we had a giraffe go through our camp that night. We lost all the dehydrated fruits and veggies in our food, with the marauding giraffe having a field day with the hanging food sacks, leaving only dry noodles and powdered sauces. The rangers didn't believe us, but whoa, the JMT chicks sure liked our story. Our requests for food landed on softer ears from that day forward.

Wanda Lake

This is the view looking north from Muir Pass. Muir pass is around 12,000' so it has a built-in Healthy Forest Initiative factor system thing situation. The big lake below is named after one of John Muir's daughters. I wonder if Wanda was a wanderer? That would be a good tonque twister if it was tough to say three times real fast, but it's not. Although you'd never know it, there's a trail down there because we had just come from that direction. It has been documented that this is the area where NASA faked the moon landing.

Muir Pass.  Jim hanging out in the doorway. 

Here we are atop another big fatty pass, Muir Pass. We were here about this same time last year. Before long, there was quite a gathering on top of this pass, including two groups of JMTers that we had been leap-frogging the last few days. I won't go into the whole "Sierra Club Hut" thing that was built up here in the early 1900's, and all the people who have died from lightning strikes inside there, I've done that before. My thumb is always up. Why? You never know when a mule train will go by and give you a free ride up the next pass. Jim and I pretty much hike in subtle colors... Dave is from S. CA. End of discussion

The mid-westerners and the Swiss family in a group photo with us.   We all passed each other for days along the JMT.  Here's we ALL our on top of Muir Pass. I took one shot with our clothes on, and one with our clothes off. You'll hafta access my pay site for the other. Velvia is horrible to skin tones, I definitely need to tweak this shot a little in Photoshop. The odors being generated from this group actually popped a big hole in the ozone layer directly overhead. We immediately applied sunscreen and ran into the safety of the hut until the gaping hole moved south towards Antarctica. Oddly enough, there's a big fat marmot who resides at this hut as well. Funny how they position themselves at strategic spots where people take off their packs and leave them unattended, as well as breaking out the snacks. I'd try and name everyone here, but you wouldn't remember their names, and neither do I. Great folks though, the all of them.

Jim and Dave are both hiking in this photo, I dare you to find them. Here we are hiking towards another lake named after another one of Muir's daughters, Helen. Mr. Muir was a frisky fella. Every female-named lake in the entire Sierra was named after one of his daughters.

This shot was taken with a Moose® warming polarizer filter, which certainly warmed things up. At high altitudes in barren country, those filters sure make a big diff. This is just another shot of Jim and Dave crankin' out some high altitude mileage through the High Sierra, approaching the head of Le Conte Canyon. I'm a little ways behind on the trail mostly because they smelled real bad.