June 19, 2016 - I was surprised at how warm that hut kept us last night, being at 12,000 feet and surrounding by snow you would think it would be cold. There ended up being 4 of us in the hut overnight. It made some weird noises when someone would snore or cough. I believe it’s was just the 2nd time while on trail I didn’t sleep in my tent.
Got up at 6am and moving by 6:30am which I had a 3.5 mile snowfield to cross. Didn’t take as long as I thought. Having mircospikes helped a lot hiking on the hard and icy snow. This was the one time I was able to out hike Salty on a downhill as he just had his sandals.
After the snow field I got to Evolution Lake that took me slowly down into the valley floor where I saw numerous creeks and waterfalls, that was really a trend for the day.
Before I got to the bottom of the valley I had to cross Evolution Creek which can be very dangerous because of high and fast moving water. I took the alternate suggested by some southbounds. The creek I the meadow is much less dangerous as its very wide so it only ended up being knee high but very slow moving. After getting back on trail I come out to the actual crossing which didn’t look bad at all, could have easily crossed at that point.
I then followed the creek all the way down to the bottom, crossing several bridges. I then take my lunch break 17 miles in. During lunch I got in the ice cold creek to help loosen up my legs.
After lunch I had a big uphill climb over Selden Pass, 3,000 feet over 7 miles. My guidebook said its suppose to be the easiest pass, I didn’t think so. I was making great time the first half but then it got steep quick which caused my legs to tire out. I was pushing it too hard in hopes to finish fast. However, I was still passing a lot of people but when it started to level out that was the last I saw anyone until the other side.
About a mile to go up I come across several lakes then the trail got really steep and the snow made for a missable climb up, had a hard time finding the trail. Finally at the top I took a quick snack break then began my descent. There was a lot more snow than I thought so it took forever to go the 2.5 miles to camp, well where I thought I would camp.
I get to the campsite that Salty and I had talked about and don’t see him so I head down to the Bear Creek crossing. There were a few guys camped next to the creek and they said Salty was just left not long ago so I crossed a very fast moving creek, again I was told it can be a dangerous crossing but I was able to get across safely. I was surprised it wasn’t worst because evening is the worst time to do a cross as the creeks are at their fullest from day snow melt. On the other side still no sign of Salty so I ate dinner and just planned to camp there but the bug were too bad. I knew there was a camp 1.5 miles down so I hope the bugs would be better there, they weren’t. I never did see Salty but I hope I run into him tomorrow. My legs are pretty tired after a 30+ mile day in the Sierras.
