The talus down to and around the Darwin Lakes presented us a bit more of a challenge, however. In fact, just as we were descending to the second lake, we were overtaken by two park service employees on their way to McClure Meadow that informed us that someone had recently set off a PLB in the area. Almost simultaneously a CHP helicopter flew up the canyon and began circling. The park service employees (not sure if they were rangers or not) quickly located the injured solo hiker and radioed the helicopter and within a few minutes it landed in just about the only relatively flat spot nearby.
A bit later the park service employees overtook us a second time and said that they had successfully assisted the injured party, who was apparently in quite a bit of pain, down the talus and into the chopper. A thousand thanks to the pilots and park service employees and all those who provide this incredibly valuable service.
The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful, although my son did have his first experience of the effect that "monsoonal flow" can have in the mountains. For each of the next three days we had late afternoon rain or hail with gusty winds. One of the support poles of my Big Agnes tent failed, but fortunately we had what we needed to do an emergency repair that held up for the rest of the trip.
There are still tons of people on both the JMT and on the Bishop Pass trail, but the area is so beautiful that we didn't mind much. A few more pics:
A lake called Wanda
