July 1, 2013 - Deer Creek

Title: July 1, 2013 - Deer Creek

Hike Info:

Trail: John Muir Trail - Day Seven

Starting location: above Trinity Lakes

Destination: Upper Crater Meadow

Actual Destination:  Deer Creek

Distance:  10.9 miles  ¹

Start Time:  7:30

End Time:  5:00

Travel Time: 9:30 (1.15 mph)

Moving Time:  5:22 (2.03 mph)

Elevation Rise: 1,673' ¹

Maximum Elevation:  9,514'

Description:

Woke up to clouds in the sky. Is this the monsoon which is predicted for today? We shall see as by the time we have breakfast the sky's have cleared. We leave two hours after we get up, after a minor mishap with Sherri's Camelback. The top lid was not screwed down and leaked a little. Fortunately, nothing got soaked.

Gary at repose

It is all down hill to Red's Meadow. We make excellent time and take a short Clif Bar break before Johnston Meadow around 9. We whiz through the meadows area-in the past there has been a ton of hitting bugs there. Today we did meet a person who stayed there and did not have any problems. We continued on down the trail at the same pace.

San Joaquin River at the Devil's Postpile

Devil's Postpile

At 9:30 we get to the Devil's Postpile National Monument. We had hiked the JMT section around here twice before and could not think of any reason to recommend it. So we decided to go down into the Monument and walk by the Postpile. A much better  way to go. First, it is shaded. Then you get to see the Postpiles themselves. Lastly it is a little shorter. Even though today they were doing maintenance on the trail. Still, it was a good choice. For those of you keeping track, this is cheat #4.

Several pleasures awaited us at Red's Meadow Resort. First, there was cell phone reception, so we got to talk with family. Next, a real bathroom with running water. Then we had a cheeseburger and ice cream for lunch. Lastly our friend Nicole from Saturday came in. All enjoyable.

Forest  after the 1992 Rainbow Fire ²

We left Red's Meadow about 1, after a brief shower from above. When we went in for lunch, it was clear. But was dark after lunch. The rain only lasted a few minutes. But in the meantime Sherri's coat got stuck on a zipper in her backpack. After struggling with it for awhile, Sherri finally got it out, but there was a tear in the coat.

Pack Protection

Nicole joined us on our walk up to Upper Crater Meadow-our destination for today. It is about four plus miles and a twelve hundred foot gain. The first couple of miles is in a burnt out forest area. This can be a hot, exposed area. But with the clouds overhead , it is somewhat pleasant walking. But as the clouds darken again, we hurry to get out of the burnt section and under the cover of trees and the mountainside. The rain even waits until we are around trees, and it only rains for about ten minutes, enough to cool us down. The Forest Service has done a good job of grading the trail, even if the slope is steep. Once we hit more trees, the rains come for awhile. We put on our pack covers and continue on. The rain last about 20 minutes. It is a fortuitous rain as it cools us down during the steep part of the trail.

Red Cone

We pass the Red Cones, crossing Crater Creek and take a break. The pack covers come off then. Then we go up to Upper Crater Meadow, our destination for today. We meet up with Fritz and his dog Bambi. Nicole has met him before, as his wife and him offered the hospitality of there cabin last night. We all hike together.  Sherri and I decide to go on to Deer Creek (37.56362N, 119.03418W) with them. It is about two miles beyond where we intended to stop today. 

It was a bit long for Sherri, but I was surprised that when we felt a few more drops I could speed up my pace and hurry on ahead, to start setting up camp. The rains did not come. But the tents were set up pretty quickly. We enjoyed talking with Fritz and Nicole for most of the evening. Dinner for us was peanut butter, Nutella and crackers. We gave Nicole the rest of our Szechuan Veggie Noodles.

Bed time was 8:45.

Today's JMT Lesson:  Definition for Backpacking: eternal torture. (Supplied by a fellow hiker)

 

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Burger, Fries and Ice Cream at Red's Meadow	Peanut Butter and Nutella on crackers	Clif Bar, Jelly Bellies, CytoMax, Propel, GORP

 ¹The supplied figures above come from either the book John Muir Trail: The essential guide to hiking America's most famous trail by Elizabeth Wenk or from topo maps. There were no tracks for today n my GPS. Below is the readings from today's status on the GPS. I view it as only somewhat accurate.

Distance:  12.8 miles

Start Time:  7:30

End Time:  5:00

Travel Time: 9:30 (1.35 mph)

Moving Time:  5:22 (2.39 mph)

Elevation Rise: 1138'

Maximum Elevation: 9,514'

²Thank you Fred and Barbara Richter for the correction from the original post where I had badly mis-dated the Rainbow fire.