Muir Pass: Mile - high 830's - 850's

Muir Pass, at 11,974 ft, was a lot of fun to go up........ not so much going down.  Going up the south side in the mid-morning, the snow was nice and firm as we went over snow fields and followed lake outlets up to the pass.  It was so beautiful with a relatively gentle grade.  We arrived to the pass where there is the John Muir Hut and chatted with some hikers and the local marmots.  We decided to head out around 10:30 and that is when all of the real fun began!  The north side of Muir Pass was really gentle so that meant it got a lot of sun which meant really soft snow!  It was a really big snow field so for the next 2 miles we post-holed consistently to our knees and sometimes to our hips into streams of snowmelt under the snow.  Now we knew what thru-hikers had to deal with in heavy snow years and we wish that on no hiker!  We were doing about 1 mph versus our normal 2 - 3 mph.  We were glad to experience that element of the hike that other hikers have endured but our shins and calves weren't too pleased!

Not even terrible beasts.........

........nor soul crushing cold could keep us from Muir!

By the way Possum has his hat tipped I would say that we shall continue up!!

Focus..... Focus!

We have made it!!!  The Muir hut at the top of the pass

Mr. Johnathan Muir.......

....... and Possum have a pondering thought in common.

Whoa!

When you REALLY want a cold-drink then you just have to go straight to the source my friend.

-- sorry that we didn't get more pictures coming down from Muir Pass but we were a little bit busy keeping upright.

Evolution Creek as it came into the valley from the high lakes.

This is the Evolutiom Creek ford which can sometimes hit hikers at mid to upper thigh.  As you can see our ford wasn't that bad but what you cannot see is the swarm of mosquitos invading Possum's personal space!  Since he was a little slower crossing the river and had to focus on not falling in the creek, the mosquitos could keep up with him and attack his cherub-like face like fighter planes attacking King Kong on top of the Empire State Building.  Even with the beard they were relentless!  Almost Awesome had a different 2-prong technique of prematurely flinging herself in the creek BEFORE crossing so as to confuse the hoard as she crossed and also act as a bath.  The results from her attempt were inconclusive.

This was a rowdy waterfall

"Mom, where does our drinking water come from?"