I call this “Hike with Scout,” but maybe you would have wanted to miss my last hike. It was Sunday, Labor Day weekend, the moon was five day past full and we were at 9,000 feet in the Sierra. I knew when the moon would rise. But it never did. Smoke. You’ve heard about the West Coast wildfires and forest closures. We were there.
The single trek this summer for my wife and me was a long-anticipated 6 days in the Sierra. Over half of the 55 miles would be on the Pacific Crest Trail. After 13 years, we’d finally return to Evolution Valley and Muir Pass. The first two-and-a-half days were pristine. We lingered over lunch Saturday at McClure Meadow on Evolution Creek--the best campsite in the entire Sierra. But afterward, we saw a bulging thunderhead behind us. Climbing toward our campsite at 10,900-feet, we realized that it was being fed by a fire. It's a pyro-cumulonimbus cloud. Two events cause them--an extreme forest fire or a volcanic eruption. From then on, we were chased by smoke. Sunday night was the worst. We never saw the moon. That Monday we crammed two days’ worth of hiking into one and got out at 4:30 pm. A half hour later the forest was officially closed.
But we were lucky. Our direction was away from the fire. That Saturday, under that thunderhead cloud, we met the nicest young couple, Aaron and Mindy. They were heading the opposite way. They were doing the John Muir Trail, with ten days still ahead of them. What happened to them? I found out a week later. Did you see the hikers helicoptered out by the Air National Guard? That same Sunday night, the one where we had no moon, the two of them reached Vermillion Valley Resort, a planned re-supply spot at a remote Sierra store and maildrop. The sole access was an 18-mile, one-lane dirt road. That road had been overrun by the fire. At 3:00 am Aaron and Mindy woke to the sound of helicopters. I saw a photo of them tightly wedged inside with their packs. They were airlifted out—end of hike.
