Day 64 : The Californian halfway point

22nd June 2013
Mile 844 to mile 864 : Evolution Lake to Sallie Keyes Lake
Mileage : 20

Today I crossed the halfway point of California near mile 850. It is a daunting thought that I am only halfway through the first of three states, but it was a good feeling nontheless. The start of the day was lazy due to everyone needing to dry out sleeping bags which had collected a lot of condensation over night thanks to the proximity of Evolution Lake. Once we, and our equipment, had warmed up and dried off we set off down in Evolution Valley following the course of Evolution Creek. Just after the halfway point, we had to ford the sometimes infamous Evolution Creek. In high snow years, this ford can be extremely dangerous, with fast flowing icy water at chest height and sometimes requiring a group effort to get accross. In our low snow year though, the crossing didn't cause a concern for anyone and we all crossed with ease. There has been a lot of comment between hikers about the relative ease with which we have traversed the Sierras thus far, and feel I need to add my two cents. While it is true that we have not had to deal with deep snow or dangerous fordings this year, the trail has not been 'easy' this year. A high snow year in the Sierras means a high rain year for most, if not all, of the other sections of the trail. This has definitely not been the case this year. The temperatures have been far higher than average this year, and there has been far less water, requiring us to carry much more water that is usual. Another aspect which is absent in high rain/snow years is the fire danger. Yosemite national park has issued a total fire and smoking ban illustrating how worried they are about fire, even this early in the summer. So far this year there have been 2 fires on the trail, both fortunately behind me and therefore not requiring a detour, or an emergency evacuation. But I doubt this luck will continue, we'll have to see. The trail changes from year to year for a whole host of reasons, and this years challenge has been, and will continue to be, the heat and lack of water. Although a long way in the future, I am looking forward to northern Oregon and Washington where water ceases to be an issue. For the next couple hundred miles however, while we remain in the high mountains, I won't be stressing about water, except how cold it is whenever I have to ford a creek.

Towards the end of the day we had 200ft climb up towards Sallie Keyes Lake and Seldon pass, during which we passed a group of rangers. Within the the national parks and wilderness areas, all non natural modes of transport and motorised equipment is prohibited, and so this group, who were doing trail maintenance, came down the trail having had a hard day clearing huge trees of the trail with only 7 foot saws and huge heavy axes with which to cut the wood. It looked like a tough job, but they seemed like they were enjoying themselves as they came down the trail towards us. After a quick inspection of our bear canisters and permits, we carried on up to Sallie Keyes lake, just below Seldon pass, where we camped midst the hordes of mosquitoes. Luckily, mosquitoes don't seem to like the dark so we only had to endure them for an hour before they went to bed. We followed suit soon after the mosquitoes as we wanted to get an earlyish start so that we'd make it to Vermillion Valley Resort at a resonable hour the next day.