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.
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:
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 |
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| 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
1 comment:
As you know, I am the 'screw plan, just go do it' type person. And I am mighty impressed with this. Yay.
Well done, K & I. Looks like a lot of fun, and something to put on my bucket list (which is now long enough to qualify for a small-waterbody list)
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