Piute Pass Trail - Evolution Lake

Any condensation-free morning is a good morning, right? Despite another dose of tasteless ramen noodles and an ever-growing bruise on your ankle. Right? Right. For once the terrain was flat, and we made good speed through the Evolution Basin. We were treated to a circus of wildlife all morning. Two chipmunks chased each other in a merry-go-round fashion around a tree trunk. Twin fawns peeked curiously out at us from behind a bush. I choked on my breath as I narrowly missed stepping on a long, thin snake before it slithered off the trail.

It felt like a monumental decision to continue up to Evolution Lake for a high camp and a strategic position for Muir Pass. I was freaked out by the altitude - but staying at McClure Meadow meant a hideously long day tomorrow and slushy afternoon snow. Muir Pass, unlike the other high passes, doesn’t have a cone-shaped elevation profile, but is rather like a speed bump. Traversing the south side would take hours.

Billy Goat taught us how to go s-l-o-w on the uphills, and it really worked! We inched our way up the switchbacks, meeting two Texan students on the way. Dan and Andrew shared our amazement as we rounded a bend in the trail and beheld Evolution Lake for the first time. It was one of the most stunning sights I’d ever seen. The green lake and white stones beneath the majestic Evolution Crest which craggy peaks shot up into the sky. Blowing up my Thermarest in the thin air took close to 15 minutes, every breath had to be slow and deep to be even vaguely satisfying.

But the beauty of Evolution Lake was beyond words. It ached just to look at it. The alpenglow on the mountains created a wonderland of pinks, apricot, baby blue and violet. The sun set blood red, low on the horizon as we wandered around drinking it in. Every cell in my body tried to absorb the wild land and store it in memory. For the first time, I didn’t want to go to bed, I hated the thought of even a thin tent mesh between me and this wild, wild place. What a wild life!