So to back up even a little further than the weddings. I took two rather newbies backpacking in Yosemite last May. We had quite the adventure and a fantastic time. We drove into Yosemite late one Thursday night put our tent together as quietly as we could manage and went to sleep. Friday morning we all got up packed our stuff had a quickly little breakfast and made sure to make it to the ranger station in the village by door opening to get out wilderness passes. (FYI this is a must because if you don't get there earlier enough there is a very good possibility that you would get to go where you wanted to). In our case not only did we get our wilderness pass we also were able to secure the last three (anytime) passes for Half-Dome that they we giving out that day. SCORE! Once we knocked out all that annoying but necessary stuff we jumped in the car and made the hour drive up to our trail head near Touloumne Meadows.
Once all settled and and paced out we started walking. First hurtle....fording a river! OOOO. 5 minutes into our journey we had to roll up our trousers, take off our shoes and socks tie them to our bags and balance across a, all be it small river but still a river, and man was that water cold. Toweled off, shoes back on and off we went to find our next challenge not too far ahead.
We had been told at the ranger station before heading out that there was still snow on the trail that we were going on but that it was only a maximum of 3 feet and that was spars. I don't know what there idea of spars is, but let me tell you it is certainly much different than mine. It took us the better part of that day to get where we were going. We lost the trail a few times especially through the thick snowed in areas. My uncle would be proud and probably a bit surprise how much of what he taught to me all those years ago when we went backpacking together I still remember, but I got the opportunity to teach the guys about how to read trail markers and where to look for them as well as how to read and figure our direction/elevation/distance from the trail map, and how to use a compass (among other things that I was able to teach them that trip).
In the interest of saving some page space and some of your very valuable time I will make the rest of this quite quick: We didn't quite make it all the way to our first stopping point the First day. Trek member M got altitude sickness, which was not so much fun for him and no party for us either. We made it to the top of a place called "Clouds Rest" and to the top of Half-Dome in the same day! Found that the bus from the valley floor up to Touloumne Meadows doesn't start running until June1st, bad news for us as it was still about a week away. Turns out that hitchhiking is the recommended method by park rangers to get back to your vehicle if it is located up that way.
Anyway it was quite the adventure and we got some great pictures out of it! enjoy!
Once all settled and and paced out we started walking. First hurtle....fording a river! OOOO. 5 minutes into our journey we had to roll up our trousers, take off our shoes and socks tie them to our bags and balance across a, all be it small river but still a river, and man was that water cold. Toweled off, shoes back on and off we went to find our next challenge not too far ahead.
We had been told at the ranger station before heading out that there was still snow on the trail that we were going on but that it was only a maximum of 3 feet and that was spars. I don't know what there idea of spars is, but let me tell you it is certainly much different than mine. It took us the better part of that day to get where we were going. We lost the trail a few times especially through the thick snowed in areas. My uncle would be proud and probably a bit surprise how much of what he taught to me all those years ago when we went backpacking together I still remember, but I got the opportunity to teach the guys about how to read trail markers and where to look for them as well as how to read and figure our direction/elevation/distance from the trail map, and how to use a compass (among other things that I was able to teach them that trip).
In the interest of saving some page space and some of your very valuable time I will make the rest of this quite quick: We didn't quite make it all the way to our first stopping point the First day. Trek member M got altitude sickness, which was not so much fun for him and no party for us either. We made it to the top of a place called "Clouds Rest" and to the top of Half-Dome in the same day! Found that the bus from the valley floor up to Touloumne Meadows doesn't start running until June1st, bad news for us as it was still about a week away. Turns out that hitchhiking is the recommended method by park rangers to get back to your vehicle if it is located up that way.
Anyway it was quite the adventure and we got some great pictures out of it! enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment