For this fine Labor day weekend, after a long week at work Igor and I had decided to go back to Yosemite, almost immediately after getting home from our last trip. (disclaimer none of the below pictures are mine. I need to find a lighter camera).
Lesson's we learned on our previous trip:
- our tent is too heavy
- our pots are too heavy
- Igor's sleeping bag is too light for almost all situation
- we didn't need to bring so many power bars
- hill climbing switchbacks are not Katie's cup of tea
- get a camp ground in advance so you don't have to swipe one (shhhh!) is always a good idea
With those things in mind, we prepared for a our trip back to Yosemite this weekend, braving the fires and the plague yet again. We had to get the breaks on the car fixed as they were giving us a rather bumpy down hill ride on the way home the last time and the tires needed to be replaced too, oy. So after a long week of errands and running around trying to get things fixed on top of craziness at work, we thought we were ready.
We got a much lighter tent 1.1 LBS instead of 6.8 (Hurray!!! Katie's pack is lighter), ditched the heavier pots for an X pot,
got Igor a warmer sleeping bag and off we went on Thursday night.
We arrived pretty late to Tuolumne Meadows campground, well after dark, set up our little light weight tent and tucked in for the night. It was pretty dang cold, much colder than we had anticipated and Tuolumne Meadows ranger station is much more popular than we thought. We woke up in the morning to a very chilly camp, got dressed and headed over to the ranger station to get our permits for our 4 day trip only to find there were people already lined up for permits tomorrow and every trail heading south into the Valley was taken....
We asked the rangers what we trail we could do, if any, leaving Tuolumne Meadows and their response was yes, one, Dana Meadows to Parker Pass down through Gem Lake to Waugh Lake then up Lyell Canyon to Tuolumne Meadows (TM). Ok, sounds good, right? Nope. But we took the permits and headed to eat breakfast and get some hot beverages to warm up our freezing hands.
The first 20 miles of this trail are all well above the "fire line," the 9,600 ft regulation for allowing camp fires, that means no warm fire for the first 2 days. To add to this, where Igor had bought himself a nice, new, warmer sleeping bag, the lower limit on that bag is still only 23F and at TM (~8,700 ft) it had been 29 degrees (so that's why we were cold!!), add another couple of thousand feet and it was going to be really, really cold. We had not packed for icey weather, Igor only had a light jacket, and I had a vest and fleece, not near warm enough for that kind of cold. I always have a poofy down jacket in the trunk off the car, which ended up being a blessing on this trip (yeah for Katie leaving extra clothes in the car!), but even assuming that it would be colder, we had not planned on it being that much colder than 2 weeks ago. Oh what a difference a day makes! Or in this case two weeks.
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| Dana Meadows to TM (36+ miles) first fire location Gem Lake |
So after some discussion over breakfast about the permit we decided to go back to the ranger station and see if we could get a permit for any other trails that were perhaps going North instead of South out of TM. If all else failed we would do a day hike and then go home. Turns out,we were in luck, and yep, there were permits available going North. So after some bickering with the Ranger about being allowed or not allowed to change the direction we walked the trail in, we set out to go from White Wolf via Luken Lakes and exit at White Wolf, except we didn't exactly.
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| What we were supposed to do, no May Lake here... |
After a long morning and a late start we hit the trail at 12:20 PM knowing we had to make it at least 10 miles before sun down at 8 PM. So we huffed it. This hike already had better scenery than our last hike and being a Holiday weekend and all, there were quite a few people on the trail, most of whom were French. At about 5:30ish we arrived at our first destination, with Katie having pretty tired legs after a lovely switch back climb just before dropping into the Ten Lakes Valley.
Ten Lakes is beautiful, let's lead with that. We set up camp just above the lake, there were probably 20 + other hikers around so it was a little more like being in a camp ground than out in the wild, but it was still lovely. I went to down to the lake to filter some water and got a sunset show as a family of deer came out of the woods across the lake from me and were having a nice little dinner. We started a small camp fire to keep warm, had a rather heated discussion about not having enough room in the bear canister to store the trash and what to do about it. Resolved to hide it as best we could in a rock pile and went to bed aiming to get up in the morning and walk 15 miles to May Lake.
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| we were camped just where you see the reflection of the mountain (http://www.americansouthwest.net/california/yosemite/ten-lakes10_l.html) |
Per usual, I had a pretty hard time sleeping, but this one was worse than in the past as my ears were aching, my head was pounding and I was sweating like no other. Way too warm in my sleeping bag to the point that I got down to just my skivvies, and ultimately got about 3 - 4 hours of sleep, I was not a happy camper. In the morning my ears still hurt, my head still ached, I felt sick to my stomach and eating breakfast proved to be a challenge, but I got through it, we packed up camp and headed out onto the trail.
Ten Lakes to May Lake is a gorgeous trail, it has high peaks, picturesque meadows, exposed granite passes, rivers and lakes, it's got a little bit of everything, including more than it's fair share of switchbacks. Oh yes, lots of those. Our first bit of hiking for the day was a set of not so terrible switchbacks going out of the Ten Lakes valley, then switchbacks down into a small valley cut through by South Fork Cathedral Creek, which was barely running. This lead into switchbacks up, then a small number of switch backs down, then some very appreciated flat, through a meadow. From there another set of by this point gruelling switchbacks up to a pass nearly to the top of Tuolumne Peak. At this point the trail goes into another meadow, and then moves into switchbacks down into the valley where there is a decision point in the trail: Polly Dome Lakes or May Lake.
By the time we hit the decision point my legs were shot, my head ache and ear ache were thankfully gone, but I am pooped. Igor and I rest and discuss our action plan. I told him that I was not sure that I could make it to May Lake in the amount of time we had before dark, 3.5 miles in 4 hours. And after some food, more rest and discussion. I decide I would give it a try, it's only 3.5 more miles after all! And since our pace to that point had been a mile every 30 minutes I figured we could go a lot slower and it would make it a little easier. Little did I know, or rather little did I want to believe, that I would have to climb 2 more passes before getting to May Lake.
We got back on the trail, Igor did tell me that he thought we were going to have to go through 2 passes and even pointed to them, but I said "No way is that possible, we wont have to do that, it doesn't make sense." I wish sometimes I would be right about these things, but I'm not. I'm not so much so that I told Igor while climbing the second to last set of switch backs: "You know when you say things like, 'I think we have to go through 2 more passes, or over that ridge' I wish you would be wrong once and a while!". And in this tone there some not so nice words uttered by me, to myself about how come hiking up is so hard, how we always seem to end up in these situation, and my all time favorite tune of "never again!"
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| Funny picture of the trail from someone I can relate to! (http://www.outbackadventures.com/gallery/Yosemite-Ten-Lakes/IMG_0665) |
But all the pain and fatigue was well worth the trouble as we walked into the May Lake backpackers camp. What a wonderful evening we had! Igor met some nice people from San Jose (a group of 15 adults and teenagers) while looking for a more suitable tent spot. We ended up joining them for dinner and camp fire games. Do any of you know what's "Behind the Green Glass Door"? We had a splendid evening and got some great advice on where to go for the rest of our trip.
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| May Lake, what we woke up to (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yosemite_29_bg_090504.jpg) |
In the morning after a much, much better night of sleep we joined another group of campers for breakfast. Turns out some of them (all 60+ probably) had done almost the same hike as Igor and I, yesterday. We had seen them in May Lake setting up their tents just as we arrived the night before, so they must not have been too far ahead of us, but man, they didn't look tired at all!? How is that even possible?! Katie = dead on foot, 60+ year olds drinking and having a grand old time, after the same hike...so not fair.
As we were finishing our breakfast, Igor was packing up the food and all of a sudden, I almost loose my breakfast, and then again. I stand up walk a little and then almost loose it again. My head feeling funny, my tummy a mess, we finished packing out our gear. We walk down to the May Lake parking area near Tioga Road, and I need to stop at the restroom. Not good. Definitely in no shape to walk 10 miles to Glen Aulin like we had planned the night before. Instead, Igor, the amazing man that he is, decides for me (since I really did want to go to Glen Aulin and was stuck in the mist of indecision) that "Nope, we're going back to the car." So, we walked the 2 miles down to Tioga Road. Igor hitcched a ride in the first car that came up to get back to the trailhead where our car was parked, and we headed home a day early and a little disappointed.
Definitely not the trip we had planned, and I would love to try it again under different circumstances, but this way we have something to go back and do. And we are already looking forward to our next trip, whenever that may be. Glen Aulin here we come....eventually.
P.S. I am doing better a day later, still not perfect, heads still a little woozy, and feeling a little weak, but much better than before.
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| Our actual route |
