August 4th | The most snow we’ve ever hiked in one day! Muir Pass was like being on another planet and Evolution Valley’s lakes were incredible. Ended the day just before Evolution Meadow.
This day looked even harder than the day before with even more snow fields. Once you got past it though, the views were outstanding once again. I spent a week at Vermillion Valley Resort from Sept. 10 thru 16 and a whole slew of PCTer's came through. Most of them had flipped forward at Milkey Pass up to the Chester area in northern California, made it to the northern terminus at the border, and had come back down to finish the Sierra.
@ 29:29 That's Mt Darwin above Gaby's(sp?) head. Next to the left is Mt Mendel. Mt Huxley was the peak above Sapphire Lake. @ 34:50 Mt Spencer is the peak at center with Mt Huxley peeking over the ridge to the right. Along with Mts Fiske and Wallace, they were named after "exponents" of Darwin's theory of evolution, which gave the area the name Evolution Basin and Valley. I had a little evil laugh when you thought you were done with snow after your lunch break after the creek crossing. That slope below holds snow late ;-)
