From the Winnett guidebook, this appeared to be a steadily uphill day, very gradual, averaging a moderate 355 ft/mile grade for a net gain of about 3000 feet. Those numbers don't tell the story, though. It was a day of gradual uphill with two major climbs, one in late morning and the other at almost sunset. We begin with an easy-rolling uphill along the South Fork of the San Joaquin River, cross the river on a bridge at 10 a.m., then hit a second bridge at 10:40, the trail junction at Franklin Meadow.

From here we take an acute left turn across the bridge and begin the climb more or less straight up the east wall of the canyon, bound for Evolution Meadow and McClure Meadow. The trail rises rapidly about 1,000 feet in the two miles leading into Evolution Valley. It's slow going, but I felt surprisingly strong. A beautiful set of falls is the payoff at the top. Fording Evolution Creek was not the major undertaking it was made out to be, this being an uncommonly dry year. Still this was the one crossing where we had to shed our boots and wade, me in my Tevas and Susan in her pool slippers.

Piute Creek below Evolution Meadow

The classic Starr's Guide to the High Sierra goes into rhapsodic hyperdrive about Evolution Valley: ''We now enter the region where the grand crescendo of the High Sierra touches at once the heart of the mountaineer and the artist. It is impossible to exaggerate the beauty of the scenery.'' After the ford, we are dismayed to find that the trail continues to climb ceaselessly through the meadows, from Evolution Meadow to McClure, from McClure to Colby.This is most unwelcome. Then it's the big push -- 850 feet of steep switchbacks to Evolution Lake (10852).

With Susan ahead this time, Erik and I do this asskicker together, complaining bitterly all the way but knowing we have no other option. What a payoff. Evolution Lake may well be the most dramatic campsite Susan and I have ever shared. It's a nearly bare granite bowl. The Glacier Divide, with Mt. Mendel and Mt. Darwin, looms above us to the northeast. As we make camp and set up for dinner we watch the peaks turning slowly from bright white (the granite in Evolution area is the lightest of all Sierra granite) to deep pink at sunset. This is the kind of extraordinary place we usually soldier through in a hurry on the way to someplace else -- usually a pass crossing. We're truly blessed to get a night here. No bears or mosquitos at this altitude, just pika, marmots and the grey grouse I tend to refer to as ''Sierra chicken.'' Again, no altitude problems at all at nearly 11,000 feet.

Evolution Lake

Saw 3 southbound, 11 northbound today.

Total mileage: 11.3
Time out: 8:36
Time in: 6:15


FIRST PAGE
NEXT PAGE