Back on the Trail Again

The Devils Postpile, Natural Post-Volcanic Formation

Back to Schatts for breakfast, just pastry and coffee this time, turned out to be insufficient to propel hikers along the trail. We walk up the hill to the resort mountain bikers shuttle in the village, again no worries getting into the shuttle.

The Eastern Sierra Shuttle to Devils Postpile goes down a steep road into the Valley and I get a little anxious thinking about what happens if the brakes fail, what would the driver do-are they trained for these situations? Maybe a little post-partem anxiety about leaving the comforts of civilization and going back out into the wilderness.

We take a few minutes to go see the Devils Postpile, still hadn't figured out what it was. There are a bunch of day hikers there snapping pix and we join the fun, it's some kinda old volcanic formation that made long six sided pieces of rock that have now fallen down into a big pile, right at our feet.

More Devils Postpile

An older hiker there tells about Lake Catherine and a valley off Bishops Pass that are really pretty, and also Evolution Valley, which we already knew about and which will hold our fate in it's hands in a few days.

The plan for the day is to go off trail into the resort at Red's Meadow for a lunch, saves us carrying a little extra weight and we get our last real meal for a few days.

The resort has a nice camp store, not a bad place to resupply, plenty of backpackers stuff. The cafe is pretty basic and no draft beer, somehow I'd gotten the impression they had it but think you gotta buy it from the store and take into the cafe, it's basically sandwiches for lunch and coffee to keep me awake for the afternoon hike. We learn that the name came from Red somebody or other who set up the place back in the early part of the 20th century.

Red Berry Bushes Trailside

We're now in a scene of devastation, it looks like a tornado has come through and cut a swathe half a mile wide. As we look closely at the dead trees, we see they're burned, a forest fire has killed them and then the wind comes and knocks them all down. There are some low shrubs growing with attractive looking red berries, we leave them alone for now 'cause we don't know what they are.

There are tons of campsites by Deer Creek, already some backpackers on one side, it looks a bit crowded so we cross and head to the other side of the creek where we find a nice quiet spot close to the creek and away from the trail.

As we set up a deer pops up outa the woods and looks at us, Elena is resting on a rock near the creek and the deer gives her a kinda unhappy look, and then others appear, they're feeding and keep getting closer and then moving away, finally we figure out that we're on a deer trail that crosses the creek right where Elena is sitting so we move away and they make a bee line for the creek, as they cross we can see the trail more clearly. We wrap up the evening with a nice campfire by the gurgling stream.