Scenes from the Grand Canyon of the Tuolomnee (Last Week)

It took me awhile, but here they are. Postcards of a trip thru the Grand Canyon of the Tuolomnee last Wednesday, Sept 7. We have the following views: a) Hetch Hetchy; b) the view down into the entrance; c) Indian Hieroglyphics in Pate Valley; d) a nice sidewalk; e) the view from the top of the rim after Muir Gorge; f) Waterwheel Falls. Enjoy.

A River Interlude

Coming back from the Mariposa Fair last Sunday the 4th of Sept, we stopped at the Red Bud Picnic Grounds on HWY 140 and Laura fed Holden. I went down to the Merced River, and it was sunset and took a few snapshots. Enjoy.

North Peak > Mt. Conness

On Wednesday, August 31st, we had a simple plan. Climb the Northwest Arete of North Peak and continue on to the North Ridge of Mt. Conness. I had done it about a decade ago with Pat Kolker and didn't remember anything unusual about it. There are two towers on the North Ridge that require rappelling to continue, which sounds straight forward. Rappelling means going straight down with gravity. Needless to say we summited. However, it ended with hours of climbing in the dark and a descent in darkness on a very non-moonlit night. And a headlamp that whose batteries were dead halfway down the trail. Luckily, it could have been colder (it was warm enough). The trip went like this: we left the Valley at 5am. We started hiking at 7am. We summited North Peak at 11am. We spent around 5 hours on the 3 different rappels throughout the afternoon. We summited Mt. Conness around 11pm. We finally got to refill our water at Alpine Lake on the descent at 1230am. We reached the car parked at Saddlebag Lake at 330am. And I drove us back to the Valley, getting home at 530am. I sold the trip as being 8-9 hours- maybe next time. (We now, and forever, will remember the direction of each rappel on the climb.) The top three postcards are from the first half, North Peak. The bottom three are from the second half, Mt. Conness. After the second tower I put away my camera while we got serious because it was getting late. Enjoy these snapshots.

You Can Dance if You Wawona, You Can Leave Your Friends Behind

A couple of days ago, Rojo and I reunited after weeks apart and spent the day walking from the Gacier Point Road to our buddy Joe's house in Wawona. A marathon day, as Jason calls them, since they are about 26 miles. This one took us out to Ostrander Lake and then cross country to Hart Lake and over Horse Ridge to the Buena Vista trail. We took some snapshots of Buena Vista Lake and then continued to the famous Royal Arch Lake for lunch and a refill of water. At this point we were at the halfway mark, and as we were to find out, the rest was all downhill from there. We passed a couple more beautiful lakes and then put our heads down and marched on through the forest without much of a scenery change until near the end when we found ourselves standing at the top of Chilnualna Falls. This was at 3:30pm in direct sunlight and with all our dogs barking and looking for the finish line. We spent a little time on Joe's porch waiting for him to arrive home from work, then had a beer with him, and then got a ride back to our car and the valley. Another fine day. The postcards are of the following: the first looks out over the Tuolomnee area from above Hart Lake; the second is Royal Arch Lake; the third is Jason moving over big pieces of granite on the cross-country part of the hike, the best part, the choose your own adventure part. Enjoy.

The Object of Our Desire (Mt. Florence)

It was a great day of traveling through the Sierra's two weeks ago, but not a day for finding our way to the top of Mt. Florence. We settled for the fact that we got to the last lake underneath Florence, and then rested and had lunch before heading back. There was lots of cross-country travel and moving through snow and boulder fields and past lakes and creeks and over passes. All in all a good day with my buddies, Shane and David. And now we know the most direct way to that obscure object of desire, Mt. Florence. Enjoy a few of the postcards from that day.

The Complete Circumnavigation of Tenaya Canyon

So with our one day off of work this week (Rojo with his job, and me with a brand new baby) we got out into the park and circled Tenaya Canyon. What this involves is the following: parking the bikes at the Mirror Lake trailhead, walking past Vernal and Nevada Falls, summiting Clouds Rest, walking to Tenaya Lake and having lunch, continuing to Olmstead Point, walking around Mt. Watkins and down the Snow Creek Trail to Mirror Lake finishing with the final paved mile down to the busstop where our bikes were locked up. 30 miles is a pretty good day hike. The bottom postcard shows some of the final steps leading to the summit of Clouds Rest with Half Dome and the valley beyond. The second snapshot is of Rojo contemplating the reason why we are moving forward with this plan- Tenaya Lake still looks far away and still further from our destination of the valley floor in the other direction. The third postcard is from the trail towards Mt. Watkins with Tenaya Canyon below us and the summit of Clouds Rest visible across the canyon walls, where we had been standing 3 hours earlier. By that point it was just one foot in front of the other, although we were traveling through new scenery for us which was picturesque. Now its time to come up with a new plan, and a new trail loop. Enjoy.

One Rim at a Time

We started out strong today, David and I, and with some strong convictions: go for the rim-to-rim hike, repeating last years traverse of Yosemite Valley and therefore saving the reversal direction for the Fall with Rojo. This was the last quick jaunt around the valley for the summer before the baby arrives any day now, and a nice way to tie up all the times I spent this year on the various trails of this venture. And even with all the GU's and Cliff Blocks we could stomach we only completed half the hike. By the time we reached Camp 4 at the 6 hour mark, I was calling it quits. It was 1pm and the heat and the Georgia mugginess of the whole day had put an end to it. And you know what? I don't feel bad about stopping. Sometimes 16 miles is enough, and I will save the hike again for a better day. The rest of the afternoon was spent with my very pregnant wife getting things ready for the addition of another family member, and we still don't know whether it will be a boy or girl. At least for a few more days. The bottom postcard is part of the trail on Snow Creek in the morning, and the top postcard is overlooking the valley from near Yosemite Point, which is in the lower right of the snapshot. Enjoy.