J & T's Epic John Muir Trail Hike: Friday, September 6th, 2013. Minaret Creek to Deer Creek

“None of Nature’s landscapes are ugly so long as they are wild.”--John Muir

Today I should have paid closer attention to the map...but I was successful in continuing my purist hike.

Ok, I have to admit something. We were totally expecting to be completely out of touch with the modern world except for a payphone at Tuolumne Meadows and Red's. But we camped so close to Devil's Postpile that we had coverage on our cell phones. I checked on a facebook friend that started the same day we did...and emailed the cat sitter.

We were up around 6:30am...by now we were getting into a groove. I would set the alarm for 6:30...get up and start coffee, braid my hair & then wake Jason. We would heat up breakfast while we started to pack up...eat breakfast and then finish breaking down camp. By now we realized we were never going to be out of camp early in the mornings--9am to 10am was usual. But we were okay with that because we really enjoyed relaxing in the mornings. We would study the maps for the day over breakfast!

Some last views from camp and of the creek before we leave...

And at 9:09am..we were off. The Aussies were long gone & unfortunately, we wouldn't meet up with them for a few days. One of the sections were the PCT splits off from the JMT. Notice the new wood sign!

Crossing to go to the Ranger's Station at Devils Postpile National Monument.

And the obligatory picture next to the John Muir Trail sign

The sign at Devils Postpile explained the formations:

Molten lava & glacial ice shaped these unusual rock columns. Basaltic lava more than 400 feet deep filled this narrow valley nearly 100,000 years ago. As the lava cooled, cracks formed on the surface to release built-up tension. These cracks formed into hexagons, one of nature's most efficient and stable shapes. The cracks deepened as the interior cooled to form basaltic columns. During the last ice age, about 20,000 years ago, a glacier exposed this cliff of columns and polished the top surface. The postpile continues to be sculpted by weathering and earthquakes that break and change the formation.

Here we are on top of the columns:

And on the trail along the base of them.

It was amazing to see the bending columns

Standing next to one to get an idea of how big they were

From there, we naturally had to backtrack to get back to the John Muir Trail. We could have taken

a side trail that met back up with the JMT but then I wouldn't have hiked every step of the trail...

and it wasn't that far--0.4 miles back to the trail and 0.6 miles to where the side trail met up.

So I was okay backtracking a mile. You do get to see the columns from the trail--just not up close!

Zoomed in

Here is the trail thru the remnants of the bad storm. In 2011, a 12 hours windstorm with 100-180 mph winds blasted thru this area leaving thousands of large trees toppled to the ground. This section of the trail was clear but a ranger told us that they can't remove the downed trees since it's National Park/Monument so they were using a lot of the wood to make benches along trails, new signs, etc. The JMT/PCT sign above is an example of the new sign vs the picture of me with the old John Muir Trail sign.

Now at some point during this section, we had to make a decision. There is a waterfall nearby that would be a side hike. We wanted to go into Red's Meadow for lunch and had to make a decision after the bridge. I couldn't figure out who Jason was talking too...until I go up close and saw it was a Ranger. We talked to him for quite a while--and I learned where I need to start if I want to work for the park service!

Now I had beard envy when I saw the park ranger--look at that awesome beard! Little did I know my husband would decide to grow his out. This is Day 1 of our trip...and three months later.

So after we were done talking to the Ranger, we continued on along a stream. We were so busy talking about my future job as a Park Ranger, enjoying the scenery and not paying attention.

All of sudden we got to a spot where 4 trails formed an X. That wasn't good...we had decided we were going to have lunch at Red's and then depending on the time, hit the waterfall. Except the sign we saw indicated we weren't on the JMT anymore and the waterfall was only 1/2 mile away. There was never any doubt of what we were going to do--we were going to backtrack the 1 1/2 miles to the JMT because I was not going to miss hiking on it. And since the waterfall was only 1/2 mile away...why not go and see it! Next time...we will go to the base of it!

After backtracking to get back on the JMT, I realized my error. After talking to the Ranger, I just followed the people on the trail to the right & never even saw the JMT trail straight ahead. So we got to Red's later than we planned but it was still lunchtime! A burger & store awaited us. Our jetboil stove gave us issues last night & we had to manually light it. We had matches but that required two people--one to light the match and another to click the starter. We were happy that we were able to buy a lighter! We also needed fuel.

I had every intention of taking a picture of our food but completely forgot until dessert.

All I could think about was the burger. I ended up getting the special of the day--I think it was a turkey/cheese sandwich or something. It sounded really good...but in the end, the burger was better.

Just stick with the burger. I had been dreaming of a root beer float all day and we just HAD to have

a piece of homemade pie. It took a lot of convincing to include the ice cream on the pie! Plus, not

only did we have a great meal...we found a full fuel canister in the hiker buckets! Bonus!!

On the trail again...and an example of one of the very few trail detours. Of course, I had to walk up to the log, put my foot under the log...then go around it & go back to put my foot in the same spot!