Fall

It's amazing how you can go to bed one night, wake up the next morning and all of a sudden, the light has changed and it's Autumn.

It has left me feeling very nostalgic, longing for Exmoor, and my friends in England.

Rockford Inn - Where our great adventure as an MA class started Oct. 2009

ADVENTURE!!! - Part 2

Lesson 3: It will all be OK, DON'T worry.
After about 30 minutes of rest Igor reluctantly tells me we need to get going. I begrudgingly put back on my pack. Just so we are clear Igor's pack was quite a bit heavier than mine. He had our camp stove, fuel, pots, food (mostly trail mix and space food), bear canister, which may beg the question, what the heck was I carrying. I had our toiletries and liquids (not that heavy), potty stuff (not heavy), the water filter (not heavy), and the tent (6.8 lbs). Some how we were still packed quite on the heavy side even though both of us only brought a minimal amount of clothing. We are working out how to lighten our packs for next time.

Anyway, we got back on the trail. Igor ambitiously thought that we could make it 12 miles to the Upper Merced Pass Lakes. I on the other hand had serious doubts based on the state of my legs after the butt shaping Four Mile Trail. We agreed to try and get as far as we could. Oh and by the way Igor at this point still believed that we could do the 50 mile Red Peak Loop trail, I on the other hand, knew that was out, at least this time based on how tired I was, our late-ish start (10:20 am) and our food situation (only enough to last us 'til Monday afternoon). We walked and walked. By about 4 PM I had very little left in my legs, so we decided to try to get from the trail marker at Illiouette Creek to the next water source, just under 2 miles away. This plan would have been perfect but... As we are approaching our desired spot, I keep thinking that we should be soon following a medium sized creek. I keep waiting. We keep walking but all I am seeing is lush green vegetation in what might have been a creek and hoping that I am wrong that we just haven't hit where the creek is yet. I keep thinking, "maybe I just misjudged how far it was on the map." But the further we go, the deeper that feeling gets that this vegetation is where the creek used to be. Sure enough when we get to what used to be the crossing we are struck with a new problem. The creek is dried up.

So what do you do when there isn't any water where you thought there would be?

Well in our case we had 2 choices: walk the 2 miles back to where the way we came where the other water source was, or keep walking to the next water source. I put my faith in Igor's judgement and we walked on. At 6:30 PM, about a mile further down the path we found it!! WATER! and just in time, as we found discovered when we took off our packs and found that neither of us had any water left. Igor found the perfect camp site for us, previous tenants had left us wood and a lovely circle of benches to sit on. I went and filtered us some water. Igor started our food and I set up the tent. We had a lovely, all be it short evening, hitting the sack at 9 PM, with a new plan in mind.

Lesson 4: Day Trips can be just as hard/fun as a loop trail
In the morning we took our time making our breakfast and getting ready of our day. We had decided the night before that the 50 mile Loop to Red Peak Pass was out this time and that we would do a day trip to the Upper and Lower Merced Pass Lakes. With that in mind, we hit the trail at 9:30. As we walked the 6.5 miles to the Lakes the subject kept returning to how glad we were to have found the water and how glad we were that we didn't decide to keep going. Igor admitted that even he would have had to push to get up to the Ottoway Lakes 3 miles further up the trail from the Merced Lakes.

We had a great day of it, stopped at a cascaded river pool system and went for a quick dip! Then on again to the Lakes where we had to climb through a rock slide boulder field to get to the little rock cropping where we dove into the icy water and had a great lunch.
We made it back to the camp by 6:00 PM, total of approximately 15 miles round trip made for a very long day but it was lots of fun.

Picture from our lunch spot

Looking out on some mountains from lunch

Lesson 5: You're Stronger than you think
On our last night, after our Lake day I ended up with a bloody nose. I am not sure how many people know this, for sure Aunt Dawne and Uncle David as they have experienced backpacking with me before, but I am afraid of sleep out in the wilderness. I don't sleep well as I am on auditory overload and ever sound makes me jump. Well as Igor was kind enough to inform me when I told him about my bloody nose:
Igor: "You're joking, right?!"
Me: "No seriously, look" shows bloody nose
Igor: Looks very serious "You know that wolf you were afraid of last time, animals like that are actually attracted to blood, so that might be a valid concern now."

I still don't know if he was kidding or not but needless to say I was not able to fall asleep for a good couple of hours, until I was convinced that any animal that wanted to come a get me would have done so by now.

Monday morning we woke up. We took our time packing out, had a lovely breakfast of our remaining food and packed up our camp. Double checked our camp site, said good bye and started the 9 mile walk down to the Valley floor.

The first four miles had some really large downed trees that we had to roll or jump over. Even with our packs slightly lighter, it wasn't exactly the easiest thing and the trail went through some areas that if there was actually water where there was supposed to be, it would have been challenging to cross. We made it to where the trail split to Nevada Falls in 2 hours, averaging 30 mins a mile, which is a pretty quick pace. That's where things got hard for me. We had done a lot of down hill come out of the Lakes the day before and my bumb knee from forever ago had started aching. When we hit the 4000ft descent to the Valley from via Vernal Falls my knee was in full ache mode.

After two miles of this with my 35 lbs pack:

my poor little knee and legs were about to buckle. I made it down the stairs with legs shaking so bad they were barely working and even walking on flat surfaces, Igor said "they looked shaky and almost deformed, the way you were walking." I had a mini emotional break, not sure why, but after a few minutes of rest I was fine. I got back up on to my shaky legs and ran down the hill, which sounds counter intuitive but really it was easier to free run, than trying to control each step. 

Anyways, we made it down to the valley floor by 1:30-ish!!! 9 miles in approximately 4 hours and yes it was almost "break neck speed." We walked all the way back to Curry Village were we had parked the car, took off our boots, both blistered and tired we got into the car, happy to finally get to sit and started our drive home by 2PM.

P.S. It was over 80 degrees the whole time we were there even up at 8,000 ft. eww. There were fires outside the park to the South and apparently 2 people have gotten the plague, yes "that" plague, you know the one from the 1300's that wiped out 1/3 of Europe's population. But not to worry so far we are fine and with 30,000 people a day visiting Yosemite to only have 2 people who have contracted it, I would say were are going to be fine. (our full trail here http://www.wandermap.net/en/route/create/#/z11/37.73216,-119.55596/terrain)

Here are some more of our pictures. 

Tired backpackers leaving Yosemite

ADVENTURE!!!! - Part 1

What do you do when you decide to take a spur of the moment backpacking trip through Yosemite? Just get in the car and go! With little in mind other than to get into the back country of Yosemite and no particular trail picked out, Igor and I got in the car and headed out Friday afternoon to the great, wide, beautiful Yosemite. Two years and a few months from our last visit which you may remember was full of new and crazy experience such as Katie the Nativgator, Trail Guide, and Proctor Extrodinar, what happens when one of your crew gets altitude sickness, and what not to bring on a backpacking trip, our journey this time was full of equally exciting experience.

Yosemite Lessons

Lesson 1: Don't worry, it will be ok

I am going to preface this all by saying that I usually need/like to have a plan. I am told that my dad loved to not plan things, just spontaneously get on the road and go... Not sure if that is true or not but he can attest or deny and he sees fit. Well, Igor is much like my dad in this case, as he finds it exciting and challenging to charge in, no particular plan in mind. So I decide to take a page out of their book when Igor suggested on Monday night that we take our much anticipated, much postponed backpacking trip to Yosemite. We have been trying to go back since May but something always got in the way, work, getting sick, climbing trips, etc. Anyway, I was so busy at work that I really didn't have the time or the desire to plan this trip to Yosemite so when we got in the car Friday afternoon I knew of 2 possible trails we could take, and no place to stay, but figured that we would just ask the Rangers.

While making the 4+ hour traffic filled drive to Yosemite, I fessed up to Igor that I really had no plan and that I didn't even know where we were going to stay when we got there because I didn't make us a reservation at a campground. As is his way Igor simply said, "We'll figure it out, don't worry." I unfortunately...or fortunately come from a line of particularly adapt worriers. Don't try to refute it, I know who you are. lol Let's just say I was a little stressed out not knowing where we were going to sleep when we got to the gates at the park entrance and they had a lovely sign that said " All Campgrounds Full."

So I followed Igor's lead and we went to the Valley anyway, hoping to find something, or somewhere to sleep. Apparently it is illegal to sleep in your car in Yosemite, and no we didn't find that out the hard way. It turns out that one of our acquaintances from the climbing gym was there as well and we ran into them at the general store. After some talking, they made some suggestions to us on what to do. We ended up finding a campsite and sleeping quite happily.

Lesson 2: Know Your Limits
We woke up Saturday morning, got to the wilderness center at 8:00 AM to get our Wilderness permits to go into the back country. After a particularly long speech about how to leave no trace by a new park ranger, which included some new policies by Yosemite since last time we went such as:

• hanging food in a tree isn't a valid method of bear prevention, 
• you have to have an impermeable surface under your tent, and best of all,
• pack out your TP, yes even the special backpacking kind (ewwww)

We got inside finally after 30 minutes of wilderness "training",  to get our  permits. This is where it gets a bit sketch. Since I didn't really know which trail to take I tried asking the ranger helping us. Other than seeming very annoyed with all my questions He pointed us towards Red Peak and Ottoway Lakes. So we decided on the Glacier Point to Illiouette Creek - Ottaway Lakes Trail. I didn't know that you had to specify an exit point but the ranger was insistent so we were supposed to come out at Glacier Pass, which would have been a 50 mile loop. With permits in hand we got coffee, ate our breakfast, got in the car when Igor asked the all important question:
Igor - "Ok where do we go?"...
Katie - "Trail head = Glacier Point - Illiouette"
Igor - "Where is that?"
Katie - deer in headlights look "Umm... at the trailhead?"
Igor - "Ok, but where is that?"
Katie - messing with GPS, only thing that comes up shows top of Glacier Point 1 hr 5 min drive from Valley floor "I don't know, the GPS doesn't show it."
Igor - "Isn't that something that you should have asked the guy when you got the permit?"
Katie - "Umm... well, I... uhh"
Igor - "Whatever let's just go back and ask, right?"

So we go back to ask. Turns out it is a 1 hr 5 min drive to the trail head, at the top of Glacier Point. So my brilliant idea, let's just take the "Four mile trail" up to Glacier Point from the Valley.

Here is the Yosemite Hiker description of the Four- mile Trail

"Difficulty:  Call it a 4 out of 10 going down and 7 out of 10 going up. The trail is wide and smooth, and not nearly so steep as Upper Yosemite Falls, whose own valley-floor-to-valley-rim trail is a mile shorter. By the time you finish the second set of switchbacks on the way up, though, you'll know you've been on a hike." (http://www.yosemitehikes.com/yosemite-valley/four-mile-trail/four-mile-trail.htm)


This is a rather deceiving description, it may not be the "Mist Trail" to Nevada Falls, which if I had ever walked up would hit a 10 out of 10 for me, and I have not done the Upper Yosemite Falls trail, but if it's harder than the Four-Mile Trail booty buster, I will not even consider it with a 35lbs pack on my back. This Four Mile Trail was still one of the most challenging hikes of my life.

The name should be "almost 5 mile switch backs to make you seriously question your personal resolve and reason of continuing Trail." It took me over 4 hours to walk up the 4.6 miles, 3,200 ft elevation gain, during which I had serious discussion with myself about not being a quitter, about my options none of which were being able to stay where I was, and having to push myself ever step of the way up, to the point that I was counting my steps at the very end "1, 2, 3, 4, ...30. ok Now 30 more.." See Google earth image of the trail:

I had a cheering squad of various different hikers from all over the world who were fabulously encouraging including the one South African gentleman, in a lovely bright green shirt, 0.6 miles from the top who let me know that Igor, whom I had told to go ahead of me, was "not that far in front of you and don't worry, he's sweating too." HAHAHA I loved it. It definitely put a smile on my very tired face. 

I did make it to the top and had Igor waiting for me there to take a break and enjoy the scenery, which was spectacular and I wish I could have enjoyed it a little more. It's the best glut work out I have ever had and I seriously could have been done for the day at that spot. The trail did have some amazing views on the Valley, especially from the top (Glacier Point). (Mom, avert Emery's eyes he will have vertigo). FYI these are not my pictures as I didn't bring a camera, other than my phone with me, and all my concentration was on just trying to make it up the hill.