Skip to main content

Day 160 - JMT Devils Postpile

The hike downhill to Devils Postpile national monument took us by two horses grazing by a small pond. While they seemed wild they were part of a group tour-- the bells around their necks gave them away. 

We trotted downhill quickly, chatting about life and careers, but were stopped in our tracks by a natural castle on the far horizon line. 

We made it to Devils Postpile by midday and were pretty tired. We entered the Postpile with Steve, an older gentleman with a delightfully positive life outlook who was doing the whole 200+ miles in 21 days.  His bouyant enthusiasm was delightful.  The Postpile is formed by magma intrusion from the earth's mantle and is famous for its vertical pipes and their hexagonal top structure. 

Concerned about the fire, we hiked another half mile to the ranger station and received poor news-- the fire had grown, was still nearly uncontained, and most people were exiting the trail. This point was our easiest exit point-- we could take a bus to town and then a bus to our car and drive north to Yosemite away from the fire and smoke, or we could continue south and face certain smoke-- we just didn't know how bad. As we continued south the exits off the trail would be tougher-- 20 miles treks east over passes to get to trail heads and uncertain hitchhiking to towns. 

Luckily I had Bob's optimism to balance my engineering caution.  Information was inaccurate and incomplete at best and we had not encountered smoke yet, so we decided to push south and see with our own eyes. We would take the decision day by day. 

We hiked a mile to Reds Meadow, a resupply resort, to get a map of the exit routes and to get another fire report. With an additional exit map in hand and a positive report from Reds (winds predicted to blow northeast and away from the trail), we pushed south-- ironically through a desolate fire-torched forest. 

We weaved through the dry, dusted area and up a hill to a high prairie. A buck grazing in the prairie welcomed us with caution as we hiked in 200 yards to a secluded tree patch with a view of the surrounding mountains and a cold, fresh stream. We put on our warm gear as the night chill came close, ate our dinner and struck a pose. Today was a difficult up-and-down emotional day. We tried to push off the fire anxiety and enjoy again the surrounding. 

The fiery sunset seemed fitting. 


Labels:

Comments

  1. David FrankstoneSeptember 19, 2015 at 5:43 PM

    This is a very good post. The photos are great and the suspense about the smoke makes me interesting to see the next installment.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 82 - Yellowstone to Montana

My alarm sounded at 5:30am, a time early enough for me to arise before someone found me secretly camping. The geyser prediction said Grand at 6:15am so I set out toward it.  I ran into geyser gazer Jim there and he said it likely erupted at 4:30-- missed it. Early morning eruptions are hard to predict as someone needed to have seen the previous overnight eruption in order to make a prediction. I walked on toward Artemesia, an unpredictable geyser at the far corner of the basin. I had seen her erupt from a mile away and wanted a closer inspection. The early morning setting was momentous, yet I didn't see a geyser erupt up close until Grand at 10:30.  Then Sawmill erupted with its twirling thirty foot action (pic).   The only remaining geyser left to experience on my mental list was Beehive up close. With a predicted window of 810 to 1210, I arrived at 1030 and waited until 1pm, before giving up. The sun was hot, I had read the geyser book cover to cover, and while seeing e...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 78 - Yellowstone Old Faithul Geysers

See Old Faithful, Grand, Lion and Beehive geysers erupt in 60 seconds:   http://youtu.be/tv7BPXW4x5g This morning was one of the most exciting mornings of my trip. It started off when I decided to take a long solo hike through the geyser field, leaving at 630am. Mist was still covering this dense geyser field as I walked from geyser to hot spring (20% of the world's active geysers reside here in this one square mile area).   Following a boardwalk, so not to get burned, I saw a man sitting on the boardwalk staring at an empty geyser hole. I asked him if he worked for the park service and he responded no-- he was an amateur geyser gazer-- he watched the geysers and recorded eruption times. He mentioned that we were quote "entering the window for Grand" -- geyser gazer speak for Grand geyser is about to go off. I walked a short ways to Grand and waited, one of a few at first and then one of a few dozen as a quick hour passed. The Geizer Gazer, Jim, instructed me on how to wa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 104 - Glacier to Vancouver

The hike up Balu Pass was supposed to be fairly easy, beautiful and dotted with waterfalls, but when I talked to the park ranger and learned that Vancouver was an eight hour drive away, I decided to skip Balu and drive west.  I left behind this pretty view.  And drove many hours through pristine mountains, fewer and fewer snow-capped ones the further west I drove. Some of the valleys were flooded to make reservoirs, leaving scenic sights.  I eventually made it to Vancouver and drove right on through to Point Roberts USA, a five mile by five mile coastal land just below the 49th parallel and thus in the USA. The park ranger had suggested this as a good place to camp but being late of the Thursday night before the Fourth of July there were no spots available. I drove around instead and stopped at a forested coastal park. After ten minutes of walking I came to my first grand Pacific view with Mount Baker 60 miles east.  The San Juan Islands and Orca Islands could also b...
Post a Comment
Read more