In another exciting, fun filled trip into the wilderness last weekend, Igor and I set out on different paths. Jones-ing to put his body to the test, Igor really wanted to do the hike that we were actually supposed to go on a few weekends back, starting at White Wolf going through Pate Valley into Glen Aulin. Since that hike was approximately 30 miles and Igor wanted to do it in one day, AHHHHH!, we knew that he would have to go it alone. I pretty much max out around 15 miles and doubling that didn't really seem feasible. Anyhow, we spent the week planning out the logistics of how all this would work and who would carry what. In the end our trails were as follows:
Igor - White Wolf to Glen Aulin via Pate Valley (~30 miles)
Katie - Tuoloumne Meadows to Glen Aulin via nothin', straight shot. (~6 miles)
We negotiated the weight so that I would carry as much as possible, taking off pretty much all the weight from what would usually be in Igor's pack, to increase his chances of making it the whole 30 miles as quickly as possible. So on the way to Glen Aulin our pack weights were:
Igor (< 8 lbs) water, some snacks, and a jacket.
Katie (~42 lbs) - pretty much everything else.
I planned as much as possible in order to make things go smoothly as I could but of course there are always hiccups even in the most flawless of plans. I knew it would be pretty cold out there so we packed accordingly, and there was a 20% chance of rain on Sunday, so we brought out rain coats just in case. On Thursday night we got to Yosemite, the weather had said that the low was to be 48 degrees Thursday night. When we showed up at 7:45PM it was already 48 degrees so we knew that wasn't true. We set up camp and then found a neighbor to share a fire with.
We got up early to get Igor on the trail asap. packed out in a lovely misty fog, that left ice crystals on the ground. It was much colder than 48, but thankfully we were prepared.
I dropped Igor off at White Wolf at 7:15 AM and his journey began on a very cool 32 degree icey morning.
I drove up to Tuoloumne Meadow anticipating that I would get a hot cup of coffee, a warm breakfast and enjoy the cool mountain air before my hike. Much to my surprise all facilities in Tuoloumne Meadows were closed down for the season. The store, the café, that had been their just a few weeks ago were all dismantled. "Oh well, guess that will teach me to brag," I thought, since I had rubbed the prospect of my hot breakfast in Igor's face before letting him loose on the trail ( yeah, yeah I know shame on me).
Anyhow, I got to the ranger station, got the wilderness permit, check, check. Almost ready to go, I tried to fill my water sack up at the water spicket in front of the ranger station... no water, pipes were frozen. hmmmph. I went back inside the rangers station and they told me I could fill it in the bathroom, so I did. Kind of sketchy but whatever, it worked.
On a side note, when I picked up the wilderness permit the ranger made sure to tell me to use the restrooms at Glen Aulin, not to just go into the woods. They also mentioned that there would be water up there (that will be key later).
I got to the trail head, packed my pack, which was not entirely easy since I was trying to fit two peoples backpacking gear in my one pack. Got it all in there, barely and set out on my way at 9:10 AM.
I took my time, or at least I thought I took my time, walking the 6 miles to Glen Aulin. It was a really lovely hike on a pretty chilly morning (31 degrees at Tuoloumne Meadow). Ice crystals covered the Meadows like a glistening white blanket and a cool icey mist hung just over the blades of grass.
I bend down a couple of times to take pictures which ended up being an experiment in Katie the human turtle. My pack was so big and heavy that every time I would sit down if I didn't do it just right I would roll over and have to twist and squirm to get back into a position where I could stand back up again. It was pretty hilarious and I am sure that the squirrels and chipmunks were pretty entertained. After awhile I took to calling the pack "Goliath" due to its size and weight.
My hike was fairly uneventful but beautiful. The trail is a relatively flat 6 miles hike, that goes on a steep downward slope the last 2 miles as it drops into the Glen. It follows the Tuoloumne River most of the way and you get gorgeous cascading water falls that start out slowly and then gradually get more dramatic the closer to the Glen you get. It is by far the prettiest hike I have been on in awhile.
I arrived in Glen Aulin at just before 12 noon and set the pack down. I went straight to the water spicket to fill up my little spare water jug only to find that the spicket had all been removed. Problem number 2..... no water, and guess what, I had left our water filter in the car since the ranger had said there would be water up there (like at May Lake a couple weekends back) so no need for my filter. MISTAKE!! Lesson 1: always bring your water filter, no matter what.
I spent the next hour scoping out the best camping spot and finally decided on one that looked like it would get really nice midday sun, since we were planning on staying here until Sunday, we wanted a good spot. I pitched the tent, then went in search of a water filter from one of the other campers. There weren't a whole lot of campers nearby but I did eventually find a nice group of guys who lent me their water filter several times that day. Turns out that many othes had not brought filters as the rangers had told them the same thing they told me, "there will be water."
I filled up as much water as I had containers for, figuring that when Igor got to camp he would probably be out of water and be very tired. I then went in search of fire wood which proved much more challenging than I had anticipated. There wasn't much goo near by and since it had rained and snowed on Thursday, everything was still rather wet during my Friday afternoon search. I did end up scavenging enough fire wood for the evening and next morning. and set it out to dry in the sun.
I had everything ready by 3 PM for Igor when he showed up. I then went on a walk around to check out the rest of the area and see what was what. There are some awesome pools and waterfalls to hang out by so I did that for awhile, until Igor showed up at 5:30PM!!!
9 hours and 30 minutes of pretty much continuous walking and apparently much more uphill than the several descriptions online that I had read, but he made it al 30 miles and unscathed!. After some much needed rest he related his journey to me which was complete with wildlife sighting of nearly stepping on a snake, nearly running in to a dear, and definitely running out of water for awhile before meeting up with some people who gave him some of theirs.
Overall and eventful and rewarding day for both of us. We stayed up as late as we could chatting with the other campers and deciding what to do in the morning since one of the campers who arrived much later than myself said the chance of rain/snow had risen to 80%.yikes!
When we woke up in the morning it turned out that somewhere on the trail Igor's sleeping mat that was in my pack got a hole in it and he spent most of the night sleeping on the ground instead of his comfy packing mattress. Lesson 2: don't rely on anything that can get a hole in it. We'll be buyng new sleeping mats.
With that in mind and the Ranger who walked into our camp as we were finishing breakfast baring the news that the rain/snow for Sunday morning was up to 90% chance we packed up camp and headed home.
Igor - White Wolf to Glen Aulin via Pate Valley (~30 miles)
Katie - Tuoloumne Meadows to Glen Aulin via nothin', straight shot. (~6 miles)
We negotiated the weight so that I would carry as much as possible, taking off pretty much all the weight from what would usually be in Igor's pack, to increase his chances of making it the whole 30 miles as quickly as possible. So on the way to Glen Aulin our pack weights were:
Igor (< 8 lbs) water, some snacks, and a jacket.
Katie (~42 lbs) - pretty much everything else.
I planned as much as possible in order to make things go smoothly as I could but of course there are always hiccups even in the most flawless of plans. I knew it would be pretty cold out there so we packed accordingly, and there was a 20% chance of rain on Sunday, so we brought out rain coats just in case. On Thursday night we got to Yosemite, the weather had said that the low was to be 48 degrees Thursday night. When we showed up at 7:45PM it was already 48 degrees so we knew that wasn't true. We set up camp and then found a neighbor to share a fire with.
We got up early to get Igor on the trail asap. packed out in a lovely misty fog, that left ice crystals on the ground. It was much colder than 48, but thankfully we were prepared.
I dropped Igor off at White Wolf at 7:15 AM and his journey began on a very cool 32 degree icey morning.
 |
| Happy Hiker mile 0 |
I drove up to Tuoloumne Meadow anticipating that I would get a hot cup of coffee, a warm breakfast and enjoy the cool mountain air before my hike. Much to my surprise all facilities in Tuoloumne Meadows were closed down for the season. The store, the café, that had been their just a few weeks ago were all dismantled. "Oh well, guess that will teach me to brag," I thought, since I had rubbed the prospect of my hot breakfast in Igor's face before letting him loose on the trail ( yeah, yeah I know shame on me).
Anyhow, I got to the ranger station, got the wilderness permit, check, check. Almost ready to go, I tried to fill my water sack up at the water spicket in front of the ranger station... no water, pipes were frozen. hmmmph. I went back inside the rangers station and they told me I could fill it in the bathroom, so I did. Kind of sketchy but whatever, it worked.
 |
| Tuoloumne Meadows covered in ice |
On a side note, when I picked up the wilderness permit the ranger made sure to tell me to use the restrooms at Glen Aulin, not to just go into the woods. They also mentioned that there would be water up there (that will be key later).
I got to the trail head, packed my pack, which was not entirely easy since I was trying to fit two peoples backpacking gear in my one pack. Got it all in there, barely and set out on my way at 9:10 AM.
 |
| Happy Hiker #2 mile 0 |
I took my time, or at least I thought I took my time, walking the 6 miles to Glen Aulin. It was a really lovely hike on a pretty chilly morning (31 degrees at Tuoloumne Meadow). Ice crystals covered the Meadows like a glistening white blanket and a cool icey mist hung just over the blades of grass.
I bend down a couple of times to take pictures which ended up being an experiment in Katie the human turtle. My pack was so big and heavy that every time I would sit down if I didn't do it just right I would roll over and have to twist and squirm to get back into a position where I could stand back up again. It was pretty hilarious and I am sure that the squirrels and chipmunks were pretty entertained. After awhile I took to calling the pack "Goliath" due to its size and weight.
 |
| Katie and Goliath |
My hike was fairly uneventful but beautiful. The trail is a relatively flat 6 miles hike, that goes on a steep downward slope the last 2 miles as it drops into the Glen. It follows the Tuoloumne River most of the way and you get gorgeous cascading water falls that start out slowly and then gradually get more dramatic the closer to the Glen you get. It is by far the prettiest hike I have been on in awhile.
 |
| Route to Glen Aulin |
 |
| Snow on the Mountains |
 |
| Last drop into Glen Aulin |
I arrived in Glen Aulin at just before 12 noon and set the pack down. I went straight to the water spicket to fill up my little spare water jug only to find that the spicket had all been removed. Problem number 2..... no water, and guess what, I had left our water filter in the car since the ranger had said there would be water up there (like at May Lake a couple weekends back) so no need for my filter. MISTAKE!! Lesson 1: always bring your water filter, no matter what.
I spent the next hour scoping out the best camping spot and finally decided on one that looked like it would get really nice midday sun, since we were planning on staying here until Sunday, we wanted a good spot. I pitched the tent, then went in search of a water filter from one of the other campers. There weren't a whole lot of campers nearby but I did eventually find a nice group of guys who lent me their water filter several times that day. Turns out that many othes had not brought filters as the rangers had told them the same thing they told me, "there will be water."
I filled up as much water as I had containers for, figuring that when Igor got to camp he would probably be out of water and be very tired. I then went in search of fire wood which proved much more challenging than I had anticipated. There wasn't much goo near by and since it had rained and snowed on Thursday, everything was still rather wet during my Friday afternoon search. I did end up scavenging enough fire wood for the evening and next morning. and set it out to dry in the sun.
I had everything ready by 3 PM for Igor when he showed up. I then went on a walk around to check out the rest of the area and see what was what. There are some awesome pools and waterfalls to hang out by so I did that for awhile, until Igor showed up at 5:30PM!!!
9 hours and 30 minutes of pretty much continuous walking and apparently much more uphill than the several descriptions online that I had read, but he made it al 30 miles and unscathed!. After some much needed rest he related his journey to me which was complete with wildlife sighting of nearly stepping on a snake, nearly running in to a dear, and definitely running out of water for awhile before meeting up with some people who gave him some of theirs.
Overall and eventful and rewarding day for both of us. We stayed up as late as we could chatting with the other campers and deciding what to do in the morning since one of the campers who arrived much later than myself said the chance of rain/snow had risen to 80%.yikes!
When we woke up in the morning it turned out that somewhere on the trail Igor's sleeping mat that was in my pack got a hole in it and he spent most of the night sleeping on the ground instead of his comfy packing mattress. Lesson 2: don't rely on anything that can get a hole in it. We'll be buyng new sleeping mats.
With that in mind and the Ranger who walked into our camp as we were finishing breakfast baring the news that the rain/snow for Sunday morning was up to 90% chance we packed up camp and headed home.
 |
| Trail to Glen Aulin |
 |
| picture that ended in my first experience as an upside down turtle |
 |
