This morning we had to cross the “feared” Evolution Creek. This was one of the big concerns earlier in the season due to its strong flow and big catchment. Looked pretty tame up here…

That was also the recommended way to do it – in the meadow. Waist deep but therefore with a way slower flow. So we did. The creek was definitely a lot rougher further down.

I still crossed it at the normal crossing of the trail – just for fun and to see how bad it still was. Not bad at all. At least in the morning when I tried. But I can see with a foot higher water level this becomes challenging. Especially for shorter people. We followed Evolution for 14 miles downhill which had washes a great valley and partly gorge into the rocks.

 

And then 3000ft up again to Selden Pass – our “Pass of the Day”. It’s incredible how much warmer it is 3000ft lower. Everything was also a lot drier.

Once higher up again the picture changed again to my favorite setup. This captures it quite well. The contrast of the roughness and soft beauty at the same time – rocks and lush green.

And shortly before we made it over the pass the clouds did get darker again. Same procedure as every afternoon I guess…

We camped right next to the first lake after the pass. As planned – 5.30pm. Probably the most epic spot so far. We have the entire peninsula to ourselves. The water is crystal clear and our spot has sunset and water view at the same time…😍

We had seen a couple tents earlier on the shore but the lake seemed to be ours. We went for a swim, washed, cooked, chilled in the sun and caught the last rays. We also made inventory of our food. We were hungry today and ate a lot. But we still don’t have to resupply tomorrow as originally planned. So I guess we will skip the famous VVR and with this a day off trail and just continue directly to Mammoth – 30 miles more.

And as we were sitting we could see dark clouds pushing in and the first lightnings and thunders. Just as a precautionary action we pit everything in the tent and cleaned up. Just when we were done the outskirts of the cell rolled over us and we were again hailed on for twenty minutes. Just the timing was way better today – we were dry inside of the safe tent 😎🤘🏼