Eager and surprised, we climbed out of the tent this morning to face the reassuring blue sky. Could it be, we hoped, that the forecast we had been hearing (second hand) had been wrong? It's Monday, and no sign of rain yet. The heavy clouds which formed last night gave us some midnight droplets, but only for about 20 seconds. Maybe that was it . . .
I rekindled the fire we had going the previous night and put on water to boil for tea and coffee. We sat out in the warm glow of the burning wood and wondered why we hadn't been doing this for the past 5 months. Ultimately, I think we both agree that 5 months is long enough to do a lot of things, including having campfires and not having campfires. No regrets.
As we hiked up into Evolution Canyon, the clouds came together again, refortifying and strengthening after dispersing overnight.
The first drops came as we recrossed Evolution Creek, hopping on massive cubes of stone across the wide stream. We stopped and put on rain gear and long pants and forged onward into the wind. The rain didn't last, fortunately and for a while there was a nice break in the weather around us. We passed a number of tents along the desolate shores of the alpine lakes in the canyon and even saw some people in the distance waving to us from a cloudy ridgeline.
The climb to Muir Pass was gentle and easy. From a mile away we could see the stone hut placed there to honor John Muir and were surprised at how simple the ascent had been. As we made the last switches up the slope, icy flurries whisked around us and snow began to accumulate lightly on the ground. It was only a brief squall, however, and as we mounted the pass, we were greeted with a clearing sky.
The stone hut at Muir Pass is a beautiful little structure. The roof climbs to a honeycomb peak and stone benches line the perimeter of the 15' diameter, circular enclosure. An old fireplace is blocked up and a sign indicates that there are to be no fires. A placard reads that the shelter was built to honor the passionate work of John Muir and his love of the 'range of light.' It is to be used as shelter during storms but not as an overnight layover.
We dug the scene on top of the pass briefly before descending down the other side. Shorlty, the weather returned and we were engulfed by a blustery snow storm.
It was amazing all that snow. We giggled like kids, shooting pictures, having a time of it, losing the trail, finding it again, both of us awestruck at the beauty of the descending skies around us.
Soon, though, the party seemed to be coming to a close and that snow was not letting up. We passed a uniformly clad trio of guys headed up to the pass at one point. They laughed and pointed to the sky. "Day 2, and look at this weather," one of them called. We smiled and passed them by, but were both starting to feel a bit weary and worried about the prospects for the rest of the day. We were soaked through by now and the chill was setting in.
We pulled off trail and hid beneath a huge boulder which sheltered a nice sized dry patch and a little fire ring almost completely from the storm. It looked like this place had been used before on a day such as this. We looked around, debated briefly and then decided to hole up for the day right then and there. We both set to looking for dry kindling and I made a few runs out into the weather to retrieve some bigger, downed logs for later use, and before long we were huddled happily over a toasty little flame, completely safe from the continually gusting blizzard outside our enchanted nook under the rock.
We wondered at this point, "What if this doesn't end? What if we are off the trail?!"
The afternoon was beautiful and strange and we enjoyed very much looking out at the wintery world outside our ring of fire. At around 5 pm, the heaviest of the snowfall seemed to be subsiding and there must have been a good 8 inches covering everything.
Now, we wait and see what tomorrow looks like.
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