John Muir Trail Journal Day8

I did 211 mile (340 km) John Muir Trail thru-hike in July, 2014, by myself.

JMT hike is memorable and life-time accomplishment.
Every night during JMT, I wrote journal. I will share them.

I didn't even notice until now (8:20 p.m.) that today was Saturday. The wilderness doesn't have much definition between days.

Today was tough but beautiful. I started at a junction of Piute trail just near the entrance of Kings Canyon National Park. Piute creek had a lot of water. The stream was intense. The creek was running high in the deep canyon. After hiking along Piute creek, then trail followed Evolution creek. This creek was also intense. Once I took off my shoes and socks to cross it, but the water level was at my waist. The stream was stronger than I had expected. It was scary and very adventurous. After that there was the Evolution meadow, where I ascended, ascended, and ascended.

Wanda Lake

Evolution Lake and Sapphire Lake are both beautiful, but the most beautiful lake today was Wanda Lake. It was so blue. Actually I got scared because it was too beautiful and the water was so clear. I was able to see the rocks on the bottom. The lake was very deep. I have never gotten scared because something is too pretty.
I thought about stopping there, but it was still 3 p.m. I decided to continue. I continued climbing up to Muir Pass. There is a small stone house called Muir Hut at the top. It was built by Sierra Club in 1930. I admired John Muir. Then I set up a camp at Helen Lake. Nobody was there. Camping by a lake gives you more solitude but it is very cold compared to camping near a creek at a lower altitude.