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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. 


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  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

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