June 6, 2014 - Tioga Road Trails

Title: June 6, 2014 -  Tioga Road Trails

Trail head: Tuolumne Grove

Hike Info:

Type:  Hiking

Trail: Tuolumne Grove

Destination: Loop

Distance: 2.49 miles

Start Time:  10:34

End Time:    11:56

Travel Time: 1:21 (1.85 mph)

Moving Time: 1:05 (2.30 mph)

Elevation Rise: 471'

Maximum Elevation: 6,226'

Description:

Karol and Dennis came past our house at 6:30 and we got the car packed and ready to go on our weekend adventure to Lee Vining. We meet with the rest of the meetup group at Kohl's at 7 and are on our way with a brief stop in Mariposa at Burger King. 

Dogwoods

Our first hike is at Tuolume Grove, just a mile from the  the Highway 120-Big Oak Flat junction. The parking lot is full, so we park on a little overflow parking area, not far. I carry a 35 pound pack-training for a ten day hike in a couple of weeks. The trail descends going in and will come out up a pretty good grade. I use the term trail rather loosely, since it is a road. When I was a kid, I remember going down this road in a car and going on a ranger walk. Then the walk seemed long, but I think it was only a half of a mile or so.

Legacy of the Rim Fire

Along the way down to the Grove, we observe the effects of what I think is last year's Rim Fire. A lot of trees burnt, but not nearly as destructive as I was thinking it was. In my mind, I had envisioned an endless sight of burnt out hulls of pine trees. But what I see is many trees scorched, with some of them killed, but still a lot of foliage, enough to make the seen pleasant. The sight is still sobering though. I walk with John and we just talk and enjoy each others company, I at least his, and it think it is mutual. We exchange thoughts on the beauty of the place. But it seems like each place John sees, he sees with new wonder.

Walk back to car

A group photo is taken by a tunnel tree. What was the pre-occupation with hollowing out perfectly good trees and running a road through the middle of the tree? Still there is something about these trees which leads you to be amazed that they still stand, and even live.

At the far end of the grove, we find some dogwoods in bloom, nice white flowers against the green background of leaves, always causes me to pause. But now it is time to have another reason to pause. Actually, I start gabbing with some people from out of state and fall behind. Between the pack and going back up the road-see the earlier comment about it being a pretty good grade-I start to pant a bit. Not badly, but I can tell I am not ready for prime-time with my pack.

We make it to the cars and now are off for a new adventure.

Trail head:  Olmsted Point

Hike Info:

Type:  Hiking

Trail: Olmstead Point Nature Trail

Distance:  .32 miles

Start Time:  1:08

End Time:    1:28

Travel Time: 0:19 (1.02 mph)

Moving Time: 0:14 (1.39 mph)

Elevation Rise: 104'

Maximum Elevation: 8,426'

Description: 

Our Gang on the Rock

Olmsted Point is our next stop. First for lunch. This is one of those places when there is few people around, you can lose yourself. It gives the feel of the High Sierra. Granite gently curving, a tree struggling to survive in the soil in the crack of stone. All giving a feel of being above everything. But about that time a car whizzes by us, disturbing that mental image.

Donna and Crowd with Half Dome

One by-product of this is John has a harder time herding all of us cats around. We take a short nature trail to an overlook. Here we look down into Tenaya Canyon and down the canyon walls. From our perch we see points like Clouds Rest, Half Dome, and Mt Watkins, for starters. Even those which get concerned with looking down into gorges, have this fear recede temporarily into the background with the view before us.

But we still have more to do along our road to Lee Vining. So we stay on,y a short time before heading off in our cars for Tuolumne Meadows. For several of our group, this is the first taste of Yosemite's high country. I suspect several will come back again.

From Lembert Dome: Clouds Rest, Half Dome and Tenaya

Trail head:  Tuolumne Meadows-East

Hike Info:

Type:  Hiking

Trail: Lembert Dome

Destination:  Lembert Dome

Actual Destination: Base of Lembert Dome

Distance:  4.23 miles

Start Time:  1:58

End Time:   4:22

Travel Time: 2:24 (1.76 mph)

Moving Time: 2:06(2.01 mph)

Elevation Rise: 930'

Maximum Elevation: 9,317'

Description:
When we pull into the Lembert Dome parking lot, my eyes start scanning the mountains surrounding us. My eyes naturally go here, with the Psalmist, from the hills, from whence comes my help? But today, what draws my eyes and thoughts are the clouds. Will they come in before we get back? Will there be lightening? Am I prepared for this? How about my friends?

Tuoulume Meadows

 Sherri and I take off last; a few stay at the parking lot. Going up, we soon see people from our group coming back. In a few minutes we see why-the hill starts to get steep. But we push on.  When we get up one particularly strenuous rise, we find Cathey coming down. It has been a long day and she has done well. I go down the slope with her and I climb back up, all in the name of training. At the exact same place, I meet Sherri coming down. She is unsure about where her GPS is, so she is going back to check. I continue on for about a mile alone. Once the trail decides to straighten out, my stride starts to lengthen and I am feeling better about myself. 

Lembert Dome

But as I am coming up, I have been hearing the faint booms of thunder and I am thinking that the top of the Dome may not be for me today. When I get to the base of the dome, I meet Dennis, and a few drops of falling water. Dennis and I go up about 20' to look around, particularly to the east. Very nice. But it is definite: today I will not be topping the dome. The group who went up further returns, after getting to the sub-dome right before Lembert Dome.

I am being asked, did I meet up with John and Karol? Nobody is sure where they went, but I am pretty confident that they did not come down my way, but still have some doubts since they could have stopped someplace off the trail. At a trail junction, several of our group decides to go down another way-which turns out to be the way John and Karol went and was a shorter way.

So four of us went down the way we came up and four down towards the Dogwood Lake Trailhead. After a ways further, the sky opens up and the lightening strikes is about 3/4 of a mile away, probably hitting the top of Lembert Dome. By this time, we are drenched, drenched not only with a heavy rain, but hit with hail and splattered with snow. But the four of us maintain a good attitude which makes the rain, the thunder and the lightening a great place to be-my traveling companions may disagreeing me on this, but at least that was my attitude.

Kate, Donna, Greg and Betty coming down

A half of a mile before the parking lot, right at one of the stable trails, Kate comes up and asks have we seen John? He has come up looking for us. No-so I look down a couple of stable trails for him. Then decide it is better to go back to the parking lot to determine who is where. This turns out to be the right choice as John is there to greet us.

After this I slosh into the car and off we go to Lee Vining. We throw Dennis out of the car and into his hotel room. Donna H decides that we would be good people to follow down to Big Springs Campground. Poor girl:  she does not know that I do not really know the way. But we arrive at the campground without incident. We pitch our tents with Lee J and we all have a pot luck. A good end to a fun day.

Note: I need to learn to pack that new pack better-Some of the insides were wet, including my sleeping bag. But that quickly dried out.


Trail Lesson:

When hiking with a group, it is good to have a sense of discipline. Otherwise, when a problem occurs, chickens without heads may ave more sense.