I left Friday with one person I hike with often, one that I hiked with once, and one I had never met before. This is the magic of meetup groups (meetup.com is a social networking platform for people who want to meet others with a common interest to do that - whether it's board games, wine tasting or bocce).
The ferry was not yet running, and we had timed arrival with the ferry's supposed run - so we got a late start and it was a hot four miles of walking around the lake. I had been struggling with hip pain unrelated to the pack for a while and having a heavy canister full of food in a pack that probably could have been better balanced (the platypus I had in it leaked on the floor at home necessitating a rapid re-pack with the runner up camelbak that was sitting on a shelf in the gear room) made it difficult.
Part of the purpose of the trip was to get info on fallen trees. For the first time my trail crew is being brought in to work on trails in John Muir Wilderness, so we're scouting trails. There are lots of fallen trees on the heavily traveled trail between the ferry dock and the Muir Trail Ranch. Lots of people on the PCT are coming out via Florence to hike the road around Bear Creek/Mono Creek. Some are going forward based on the rumor of a new tree down over the creek. One said if he didn't like the look of it he'd reverse course to MTR and out -- after a high pass and so many miles, I doubted that he would do so, but it's his hike.
The meadows are lush and boggy and buggy. I used Ultrathon with good results, two of us used lemon-eucalyptus and one Deep Woods Off! Spray, and two of us were not overly bothered and not applying every hour or so.
I remain unconvinced of the effectiveness of alternatives to DEET. Of course, the gnats and flies do not care about anything and land on you regardless. Hiking in we camped along the river, got to the junction of the JMT and the Goddard trail about midday, then camped there and walked up to Evolution Valley. Yep, the stream is really really high. There are nice views from the switchbacks.
Our third day was spend in Goddard, working around fallen trees, snowbanks, wading more streams and taking pictures of waterfalls. The snow was consolidated into the bottom of the canyon and the river flowing out from under it -- as we got higher and higher it was obvious we weren't making it to Martha (not to mention a 20 mile round trip is really more than what we wanted). It was uninterrupted by people until the llama guy showed up. One man, five loaded llamas, and nothing phased them. He made it past avalanche debris, creek crossings, fallen trees, sketchiness and the llamas took it all in stride.
We hiked the distance from our base camp to Florence in a day, and spent the night in a little-used campsite near the ferry dock. Very much quieter than the nights by the river, and I heard a mouse peeping and scurrying... We slept in a little, packed at a leisurely pace, waited for the 11 am ferry and rode across to cold drinks and clean clothes.
Adventures... there was a guy in sweats hiking with a satchel in a hand from MTR to the ferry, passed us on the trail. His friend was hiking the "road" that the OHV uses to get supplies to MTR, so we didn't see him. Then we got to the lake and paused for enjoying the view and the breeze at the top of the ridge, and met the friend, hiking back to find the guy. Who should have been at the ferry, and wasn't. Evidently a family member of the MTR owners and had been there many many times. Now he will go down in infamy for blowing through the trail junction and ending up at the bridge instead of the ferry...
We were a fairly compatible, mellow group. Lots of laughing and a little teasing. One of us dropped prescription glasses in Evolution and did the hike twice, and miraculously found them.
Trash hauled: empty fuel canister we found buried in the campsite we used, many wrappers, broken glass. Sunglasses.
Fish caught: none. They weren't biting at the ferry dock and I wasn't trying hard, was tired from the heat (75F, bleh). The rivers were too high for fishing.
People redirected: four, thrus who were trying to get to MTR.
Gifts given: a tube of sunscreen we found went to a thru who was out. Many of the thrus are tanned to incredibly dark states. Many with ice axes and crampons, so probably snowfields had a lot to do with the tan.
Trail intel: two young men came down Piute and reported "epic" stream crossings and many many trees down -- we're going to have to go up there with saws soon, after the water subsides. The one said there was solid snow at the top and also in Humphries Basin. He had crampons. The other made it over Piute with tennis shoes.
In the best interests of actually posting I will follow up with a post with pictures later today...
