Lamarck Col -- Evolution Meadow -- Humphreys Basin -- Piute Pass Loop

My friend Len had been talking about going to Evolution Meadow for a long time. He suggested a trip in summer 2003 starting at Florence Lake and taking two days to get in and two days to get back out. I studied the map and a few books and proposed going in from Bishop to North Lake and up a unofficial trail to Lamarck Col, then down to Darwin Lakes and over to Evolution Lake. It looked to be only 9-10 miles and possibly do-able in one day, leaving us 2 days at Evolution Lake. The route is not for backpacking newbies -- there is one challenging permanent snowfield to cross at Lamarck Col, and only a vague suggestion of a trail down from the Col to Darwin Lakes, but a fair number of people have used this route before. Len invited a whole bunch of his friends and two of them joined up: Andrea and Cheryl. Len was going to spend a day acclimating around Bishop, so the rest of us agreed to meet Len at Bishop the evening before our hike.

Day 0

Andrea generously offered her car to carpool up in, so we got to her place at 8AM or so and through great effort got three people's gear into one Acura. The drive to Bishop went quickly and we stopped at the ranger station to pick up the permit but Len had got there first before going fishing. The ranger assured us that we could cross the snow patch at Lamarck Col if we had ice axes or hiking poles. While we waited for Len to get back from fishing, we checked out Galen and Barbara Rowell's gallery in downtown Bishop. Truly incredible, and sad to think they are gone.

Having forgotten one or two items on my list, we made a last minute visit to the big sporting goods store. Then we ate dinner at a family restaurant in downtown Bishop. A lot of discussion ensued about departure times.

Day 1

We didn't quite get as early a start as I had hoped. Len and Cheryl had left an hour earlier to get a running start. Andrea and I fueled up on some excellent pastries at Schat's Bakery, which made the delay worthwhile. Later we found out that Len had stopped there as well, an hour earlier than us. Up at North Lake, there were parking spaces available so we didn't have to walk up from the overflow lot.

We headed up the trail to the campground and actual trailhead. It was a spectacular, clear day and we met a number of people coming out from Labor Day weekend, including one guy with terrible looking wound on his leg. It seemed he took a fall at Lamarck Col.

We caught up to Len and Cheryl at a beautiful overlook where I shot this panorama:

We rested at the fork where the Lamarck Col trail crosses the stream. We didn't have many difficulties finding the trail. The ascent went more slowly than hoped for, partly due to not getting enough days at altitude to acclimate to >10000 feet elevations. Not too much further I shot this panorama from a rock pinnacle with a fine view of Upper Lamarck Lake and the entire canyon down to North Lake:

There was one place where we couldn't believe the trail appeared to go straight up the side of a steep rocky mountainside. That area was where we saw the last of the Labor Day weekend people headed out, and we met no one else the rest of the day. We took a lunch break at a nice meadowy spot. Then we struggled mightily in the thinning air and got to the small lake beneath the Col. In this panorama you can see the snowfield and above that the Col itself. Len and the others are barely visible in the distance:

We then headed up to tackle the snow crossing. The boulders beneath the snowfield are much larger than they look! It took quite a bit of exploring just to get to the top of the snowfield. I found the highest possible crossing point which also had the least slope. Unfortunately the snow was actually ice, and it was hard to get a grip on it. I stomped out some steps as I went across, but I felt extremely precarious with my top-heavy pack. One slip, and you go hurtling down a 40 degree slope into the giant boulders.

All four of us safely got across the ice, but there was no clear path to get to the Col. So we explored different ways. I choose a high route where I ended up in a rocky chute having to take my backpack off and push it up ahead of me. From there I saw where the "path" actually went somewhat below me, and guided the others towards it.

After this gargantuan struggle, the remaining steps to the top were like coasting. And the view from the top was really incredible:

We rested awhile and had some snacks. Now for the hard part -- there was no trail to speak of to get down to Darwin Lakes. It was all one giant boulder field with a few sandy areas in between. I was trying to scout out the best route which meant exploring a fair number of dead ends. At one point we were split up into two groups of two and got out of sight and sound from each other--perhaps the most dangerous possibility I was concerned about. We waited and shouted and after a bit regrouped.

I'm sure we did not take the ideal path down, because it's almost impossible to see the best way to go from the middle of a giant boulder field. It took the remaining daylight to get down to the second Darwin Lake. When we got to the lake, I was completely exhausted and it seemed like everything I did took three times as long as normal. I barely had the energy to talk. So it was with profound relief that I went to sleep at 12000 feet above sea level.

Day 2

As the morning light brightened, it started hailing. We retreated to our tents and waited it out. Over breakfast, we all agreed we didn't want to retrace our steps over the Col. So I proposed a big 40 mile loop going back out through Humphreys Basin and Piute Pass. I was glad to have brought extra maps which covered that route, although we would have done alright without them. Everyone seemed amenable to the new itinerary so we slowly got our stuff together while the tents dried out in the sun. I captured the following two panoramas from the east shore of the second Darwin Lake:

While we were getting packed up, two women backpackers walked by on their way out and we compared notes. We couldn't offer them solid advice as to the best route up, but they seemed pretty confident. We hiked past the third Darwin Lake, crossing more boulder fields but they gradually got smaller and smaller until the last Darwin Lake:

From just past this lake, we could see Darwin Basin stretching out before us and a fair use trail. We met a couple groups of people going into the basin. After passing a small lake, we came to the edge of Evolution Canyon, and could see Evolution Meadows. Suddenly a helicopter buzzed by in the distance going fairly low. It turned out that it was part of the search for two guys who were famously lost. We stopped along the stream for lunch, and as I turned around while standing off trail, my calf suddenly started cramping up. It was not surprising given how much boulder hopping we had done in the last 24 hours. I left the trail briefly to see if I could get a panoramic view of Evolution Lake and Evolution Meadows, and I did:

We descended quickly from our rest stop and a guy going the other direction asked how far it was to Evolution Lake. At first I said he was on the wrong trail, but then I realized we had merged onto the John Muir Trail (JMT), and told him about 1/2 mile or so. I had to laugh at the absurdity of having navigated halfway across a Martian rockscape only to be disoriented upon landing on the great Sierra freeway, the JMT. There had been no sign at the turnoff for the Darwin Lakes side trail. We continued on down the JMT, and saw more people but not as many as my last visit here. We came to the ranger station and dropped off a note that the two women had asked us to deliver. No ranger though -- out on patrol.

We walked, and walked, and walked. Evolution Meadows is quite long. I was having a hard time remembering exactly where the stream crossing was (which represents the last possible place to camp before descending out of the valley).

We got to the area of the stream crossing and discovered a large encampment there--perhaps 20-25 people. So we backtracked, a bit tired now, to a spot about 500 feet east of the big group. It was a very pleasant location close by the creek but with excellent tree cover. Everyone was being so helpful that we practically had to arm-wrestle to see who would go filter water for everyone. Since Cheryl was setting up their shared tent, Andrea won and and filtered all of our water bottles. We had a very pleasant dinner.

Day 3

Len got up extra early and headed down the trail without waking the rest of us, as was his plan. We would not see him again for about six hours.

The rest of us left Evolution Meadows and passed by a large waterfall which I failed to shoot on JMT2. I decided to stop and capture it even if it was less than ideal lighting conditions:

A short while later a nice view of the San Joaquin River canyon opened up:

All along this section I got questioned by hikers going the other way "Hey -- are you the lost hiker they're looking for?" The best rejoinder I could think of was "I'm doing a thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail... what state is this?". Later we heard one of the lost hikers was my height, and both of them walked out and ended up at Roads End, way south of this area.

Not much further a much better view opened up:

I descended to the San Joaquin River, thankful that Andrea and Cheryl had waited for me, and we kept a good pace to Piute Creek Crossing and the edge of Kings Canyon. Still no sign of Len. We have lunch and talk to a family doing the South Lake to North Lake loop. It started raining as we headed up Piute Creek. Well the rain didn't bother me that much but the thunder and lightning kept the adrenaline going. I stopped to shoot this scene during a 5 minute break in the rain:

It rained for 4 hours solid, and soon I found myself in demand as a poncho backpack-fitting assistant. The others all had these ponchos which fit over one's head and backpack, but are a bear to put on yourself. We finally gave up on forward motion at Hutchinson Meadow. The afternoon was a severe test of our rain-proofing and the rain won in most cases. I did convince at least one of our party of the usefulness of a rain-proof hat. Looking at all the campsites in this area, it was amazing how flooded and muddy most of them were from the rain. Luckily there was one camp area largely unscathed under some trees. As soon as we set up camp, the sun came out. Here's a panorama in the general location of our campsite near Piute Creek:

Somehow despite having a backpack rain cover, my sleeping bag got slightly wet. I dried it out in the sun's remaining warmth, and talked to Cheryl who was drying out some of her gear too. We had a pleasant dinner and enjoyed a fire with the least damp wood available, laboriously collected from under rocks and trees.

Day 4

It was so humid that my dripping t-shirts did not dry out here at all, even overnight. Len left camp at about 6:12. I left at about 7 something. Everything in Piute Canyon was soaked from the previous day's rains. At some point a few miles up from Hutchinson the trail breaks out of the trees and that is where I shot this view of the canyon below Humphreys Basin:

Then I caught up to Len. We compared notes on how beautiful this stretch had been. A short while later we arrived at this fine overlook of Humphreys Basin:

And another excellent view of Mt. Humpheys (Len is visible here, but only in the original 4000dpi scans of this scene):

I rushed double-time up the trail to Piute Pass, fearful that the clouds were going to turn to rain. As I started shooting at the pass a couple dayhikers in matching pink jackets arrived. Here's two views from Piute Pass, the first on the western side, the second providing a better view to the east:

I rested for awhile and Len arrived. Len then went up the cusp of the pass to explore while I ate some raisins. I didn't feel that great from being pretty dehydrated. I had not brought my usual inline-filter-canteen, but some inferior imitation which by this point was pretty useless. The others arrived and we rest and talk. I headed down the trail first to filter some water at the next lake. I don't think I had such a determined sense of mission at any other time on this trip. I filtered some water and shot this panorama of Piute Lake:

The others arrive and we rested a bit. Then a muscular guy with a 70 pound pack stops his uphill journey and engages in some chit-chat. When he finds out we all crossed Lamarck Col, he reacted with disbelief. He had tried to get across with the day after we started and he couldn't make it. The views here were idyllic, and the rest was very enjoyable.

At the next lake (Loch Leven) I shot this scene:

And lastly as we pass the dramatic Piute Crags formation, the view is too much to pass up:

The descent to North Lake took a few hours. We got to the trailhead just as it started raining hard.

Back in Bishop, we snacked at the Kava Cafe and marveled at our luck--if the rain/hail had been slightly earlier, the whole trip could have been washed out.

All in all, a great adventure made better with the company of good friends.