Trail Stats
Name: JMT Day 4: Beck Lakes Trail – Deer Creek via Red’s Meadow
Where: Sierra Nevada, California
When: August 3, 2014
Distance: Roughly 13 miles. Roughly 1700 ft ascent/800 ft decent.
Devil’s Post Pile
Journal Entry:
The beginning of this day brought us to the Devil’s Postpile which is a huge “pile” of hexagonal basalt columns – super cool! Then we walked in to the Red’s Meadow Resort (Tess and Karen took the shuttle) where we had a wonderful hot shower and marveled at the stuff for sale in the shop. We had lunch in the cafe – I was looking forward to that fantastic vanilla milkshake ever since we started planning our trip! The hike out of RM was boring and dull. The weather was cold and smokey. We had planned to camp at Upper Crater Meadow but somehow never found it. I was starting to feel freaked out and desperate because it was getting dark, rainy, and foggy and we hadn’t seen another hiker for a long time. Eventually we came across a couple of hikers who informed us Deer Creek was 1/2 mile away. Rejoice! I was feeling terrible from my grilled cheese and milkshake and was very fragile. When we finally got to camp Tim kindly set up camp while I tried not to burst into tears. Then I discovered my onesie–my luxury item–was no where to be found. Then I actually burst into tears. I was convinced I had left it at RM. But then I remembered that I had shoved it inside my bear vault. Yay! That evening we played bocci (Karen won) and we made a fire. The fire made me so happy. Fires make camping so much better. I guess because there’s something to occupy your attention through the long evening.
The hiking on this day is not particularly spectacular. In fact, when I look back on the whole JMT, I think this was the most average day of hiking.
The Devil’s Post Pile, a US National Monument, is an attraction not to be missed. It is a strange sensation coming off the trail into “civilization” and being surrounded by regularly-clothed people pushing baby strollers.
A stop at Red’s Meadow for a shower and a meal is a necessity. Purchase shower coins in the camp store. Hot water! Bliss.
There are a couple hiker barrels here to pick through if you feel like stocking up on free food that other hikers have left behind. They don’t offer nearly the kind of selection that the hiker barrels later on in the trip do, though.The hike out of Reds Meadow is uninspiring as evidenced by the total lack of photos I took that day. You pass through a section burned by forest fire and then spend the rest of the day climbing up through the trees.
The weather for us was overcast and blah. It started getting dark and rainy early in the afternoon.
Deer Creek is a pleasant campsite in the trees. There are spots to camp on either side of the creek.
It’s pretty amusing and slightly embarrassing reading back through my journal entries. In the real world, bursting into tears over a lost onesie is something only a 4 year-old would do. Yet for me, hiking is an entirely emotional experience. Sometimes when I’m drained at the end of a grueling day, or, like on this day, feeling fragile and worried about the weather or getting lost, tiny little things seem like the biggest of deals. It was early days, yet: we hadn’t become hardened to the trail.
Hiking out of Red’s Meadow
Day 4 morning selfie
The Hiker Hunger 