Sunday September 14, 21.9mi/35.1km

Evolution Creek (x/9480ft) to Ward Lake CG (528.3/7320ft) (CA) +0.6mi Blayney Hot Springs

I left camp at 7am, and happily it was a little warmer than the past few days so I didn’t have to wear all my layers.

I enjoyed the feeling of being warm for maybe 30 minutes, and then I had to cross Evolution Creek, which definitely made my feet and legs numb.

But it was an easy crossing, not even shin deep. The last time I was here on the PCT, it was almost waist deep. I continued my descent down to the San Joaquin River and the morning warmed up nicely.

It seems like every morning I see a deer, but this one was tiny.

When the sunshine hit the valley floor, it instantly became much warmer and I was able to pack away my hat and gloves.

It was neat following the San Joaquin River, it had carved out these little canyons, and the river was quite loud.

After an hour of following the river, I apparently crossed out of Kings Canyon National Park, and into a wilderness!

I met a bunch of hikers at a junction here, they were all doing the popular “Two Lakes loop”, which starts near Bishop and goes over three passes. There are so many ways to explore the Sierras! A couple miles later I came to Muir Trail Ranch.

When I was on the PCT, I skipped this resupply stop since they charge $75 to hold your box of food, and it’s a little ways off that trail. But the Hot Springs Trail goes right through it, so I figured I would explore it.

They had a whole area set up for hikers, with picnic tables and tents, outlets for charging, and a sink for hand washing. And all the PCT hikers who mail their food here have to send it in a 5 gallon bucket, which results in a pile of buckets, haha.

And they had quite the extensive hiker box, since people always pack too much stuff and have to leave some food or gear behind. It was impressively organized, probably the best I’ve ever seen. Each bucket was a different category.

I pulled out some pretty good looking stuff out of the “snacks” bucket.

There were a couple other hikers there, who were pretty excited by the massive selection in the hiker boxes. I decided to go explore Blayney Hot Springs, just a couple minutes away. After an easy ford of a creek, I explored around a meadow to look for the hot springs.

They were easy enough to find, the first couple were a little murky, but the third one was nice with some rock benches.

After leaving Muir Trail Ranch, I spent the next mile on a confusing web of horse trails and old roads. But pretty quickly that narrowed down into a single, nice hiking trail.

Usually the bridges are built for function, but clearly this bridge was also built for aesthetics. A curved wooden bridge!

And the creek that it crossed over had one of the best swimming holes I’ve ever seen. Fortunately, it was a pretty warm afternoon so I was actually able to go for a quick swim.

I dried off pretty quickly in the warm afternoon sunshine, and had a nice hike along Florence Lake. Actually it was more above the lake, I never got close to the lake.

And it was a fake lake, created by damming up a river.

At the other end of the lake, I hiked through a picnic area, which was closed for construction. And then I passed by the marina, which was closed due to low water levels. So with nothing open, it’s an easy decision to continue onwards. It also made for a very quiet roadwalk, since there was no reason to drive the road. It was a very scenic roadwalk, blasted through granite cliffs.

I had planned on finding a free roadside camping spot, but the entire area is granite slabs, which would make setting up my tent impossible. So when I got to Ward Lake campground, I paid the small fee and set up my tent in one of the nice little campsites. Only three more days of the Hot Springs Trail until I’m finished!