November 22, 2014 - Ft Monroe and Beyond

Title: November 22, 2014 - Ft Monroe and Beyond

Trail head: Bridalveil Falls parking Lot

Hike Info:

Type:  Hiking

Trail: Old Wawona Road

Destination: Ft Monroe

Distance: 5.09 miles ¹

Start Time:  9:15

End Time:  2:41

Travel Time: 4:09 (1.23 mph)

Moving Time: 2:44 (1.86 mph)

Elevation Rise: 1,413' ¹

Maximum Elevation: 5,391'
 ¹My GPS did not start picking up a signal until about 30 minutes into the hike. So the miles and elevation rise is based upon a hike we did a couple of weeks ago, as well as the map and profile. Also the start time is an approximation. The Travel and Moving Time/MPH is the actual recorded.

Description:
It is a wet day and has been predicted to be so for many days now. It is my second meetup hike as an organizer and at one time, this hike had 25 people signed up for it. But through normal attrition and the impending weather taking a toll, we are down to eight people on hike day. Still for the rain predicted that is good. Three people will meet us at the trail head, so I tell non-family to meet us at my house instead of Kohl's. It turns out this is sort of like the last meetup hike I lead: on that one we had 17 signed up and 18 returned. Today we have eight signed up and will have nine return. For you see, as we enter into Oakhurst, Dana texts us saying she is waiting at Starbucks in Oakhurst-she had decided to go at the last moment.

Our Group

We actually get to Bridalveil Falls parking lot just a tad after 9:00-about half an  hour earlier than I was expecting.   But all three of the people whom we are to meet are there: Jerry K, Mark and Jan. Mark and Jan are people I have not hiked  with before. But that is one of the good things about meetup, you get to meet new people. The rest of our group includes Carol-a friend of ours, Steven and Sherri-son and wife, Betty and Dana-meetup friends, and myself. We drive up a quarter mile, a little above the W1 sign post where we get out and start in.

Cathedral Rocks

Did I say that it was already raining? Not badly, but we do have on our rain gear. We start up the trail: me in the lead and Sherri and Jerry K being the sweeps.  A lot of times Yosemite can be spectacular with clouds: the clouds playing tag with Half Dome or creating contrast with El Capitan. But that is not today's experience: no Half Dome or El Cap in view. There is a solid blanket of clouds obscuring almost all views. In places, we can make out a bit of a nearby ridge-line. Still there are some benefits in this. For one, the trail is not dusty and the rain has rinsed off the leaves, causing them to glisten.

Gary talking

 We climb up the historic Old Wawona Road ², with the light rain which we started with now becoming a real rain. One of my interests when I travel a trail is to understand who came here before me. In this case, the road we travel and the fort we are going to have many stories to tell, and I enjoy talking about these stories. After crossing a couple of dry creeks-Meadow and Artist-we stop at Artist Point ³. This place has inspired many a Promethean pioneer artist. But this would not be one of those days. I do stop with explaining what the artists would see here. But somehow, it is not the same.

View from Artist Point on a clear day

Clear Day View-Artist Point

Looking across the Valley

Now we continue to divide the rain waters and climb up Old Wawona Road. The rain does drive us on rather than having us stop and try to gaze at the cloud-hidden wonders surrounding us. We do some of that anyway. The rain and time of year have knocked down some of the amber and orange leaves, but we still see the immense big-leaf maple leaves underfoot. Some of the autumn leaves still dangle from their perch on the trees surrounding us. After Artist Point, we quickly pass the Pohono Trail. We then climb a coupe of switch backs before emerging onto a flatish area. I sort of thought this must be where Ft Monroe ⁴ is. But it does not correspond to a description which Tony Krizan has given more nor the GPS coordinates which GNIS has. So I think I am mistaken. But that does not stop me from giving background on George Monroe.

View on another day from Inspiration Point

Artist Creek

Now it is a short walk to New Inspiration Point where we were to have lunch. But it is raining harder than ever. For once, people do not want to stop and rest and enjoy a peace lunch. I wonder why? So we then head down the Pohono Trail back to the Old Wawona Road. Here some of the faster hikers want to get back to the comfort and dryness of their vehicles-I do not blame them. But I cannot get much wetter than I am, so I wait around and just make sure everybody is going in the right direction. The trail down from New Inspiration Point is pretty steep, but with water running down the trail, at least we are not choking with dust

Artist Creek

As we come back down the road, there is one aspect of the trail has changed: we now have a creek crossing at Artist Creek. There is a nice bit of runoff there, nothing too dangerous or anything, just a nice surprise. The creek also brings out the colors, so despite the rain, we stop for awhile and enjoy the view before us. But the dry cars are calling, so we march down the road for the final mile.



But we were surprised when we get down to the spot where we started: the cars are gone! It will be a long and wet walk back home if that is true. But before we have a chance to moan about this, along comes Dana. Then Steven and Jerry K is right behind her. So we slosh into our cars, trying not to flood them and agree to meet up at the Chinquapin restroom. Jerry K does say goodbye to us. But we are stopping in Oakhurst at El Cid. We eat and enjoy each other as we warm up before heading back to Fresno. I think we all agree I will need to schedule another trip up this trail this Spring, preferably not in the rain.

Leaves on the ground

Trail Lesson:

Rain is survival able. What you make of being in it depends on you, not the rain.

More Gary talking

Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves

Talking Notes:

 ²Old Wawona Road

Starts at the Wawona Covered Bridge. Crosses the road around the campground. Around Misquito Creek, it drops below 41 and parallels or crosses it several times. Dr. John Taylor McLean created the road. Once only one of two ways into the valley. remarkable achievements of these pioneers using picks, shovels, black powder and sweat to achieve their goals. Their only monetary reward was a wage of $40s a month, food, and lodging.

Soon after enthusiast James Hutchings began escorting sightseers to view Yosemite Valley in 1855, Andrew, Milton and Houston Mann built a 45-mile toll horse trail from Mariposa to the already-famous Valley via the South Fork. Mainly, they followed the old Indian trails. It was opened August 1, 1856, and operated as a toll route until 1862 when Mariposa County purchased it, declaring it a “Public Highway.” Until then, tolls were: [“]Man and horse each way, $2.00; pack mule or horse, each way, $2.00; Footman, $1.00.” ³¹
In 1869, Galen Clark organized a stock company of eight men to build a wagon and stage road from Mariposa as far as Clark’s ²² (Wawona) which was used as a toll road from 1870 until 1917. As early as 1870, Clark had a survey made for a wagon road from his lodging at Wawona to Yosemite Valley. This road was begun by Chinese laborers, under the direction of John Conway and Edwin Moore and finished by Washburn, Chapman & Company in July, 1875. ³² Most of the 16-foot-wide road was constructed during severe winter weather. The era of the stagecoach, which was to continue, in jolting, dusty fashion for forty years, began for Yosemite-bound visitors.
By mid-April, 1875, the rough road was passable for stagecoaches except for a narrow, 300-yard section still under construction near the old Inspiration Point. To the passengers’ temporary inconvenience and amusement, they walked the unfinished stretch while their quickly-dismantled stage was carried in pieces by hand, then reassembled, harnessed up, reboarded and driven off with considerable aplomb. ³²
The Yosemite Stage & Turnpike Company (Washburn brothers), ran stages from Merced to Wawona via Mariposa where they had a livery stable.
The road from Raymond to Wawona generally followed the route of present State Highway 41, while the stage route from Mariposa, called the Chowchilla Mountain Road, exists today, rutty, dusty and little-changed from its 1870 route.
The Wawona Hotel was a logical and popular overnight stop for stage travelers, and the Yosemite Stage & Turnpike Company, operating two stage schedules and 700 horses, saw to it that their passengers traveled speedily and safely, though dustily.
In 1865, 369 hardy, saddle-sore travelers visited Yosemite. In 1875, mostly in stagecoaches, the Park had 2,423 visitors; 2,590 in 1885; 8,023 in 1902; and in 1914, when automobiles were allowed on the Wawona Road, 15,154. Travel doubled in 1915 when 31,546 visitors chugged in; 209,166 came in 1925 and 498,289 in 1932, ³³ the last year of Washburn ownership.
The Wawona Road accounted for a number of Yosemite “firsts.” The first automobile to enter the Valley traveled it in 1900, and 32 miles of it had the honor of being the first paved road in the Yosemite region in June, 1902 ³⁴ Mud and dust were tamed!
Soon increased automobile traffic made oiled roads a necessity and, in 1932, the new, modern Wawona Road was completed from the South (Fresno) Entrance to Yosemite Valley.

 ³Artist Point

Thomas Hill is the most noted artist who worked at this point. From sketches he made here, he painted the Great Canyon of the Sierras in 1871. Also he painted Yosemite Valley. This painting gathered top honors in the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. He eventually worked out of Wawona at what is now the Ranger Station there. For paintings of his, look at the Yosemite Museum, Oakland Museum and Sacramento's Crocker Museum.

J Smeaton Chase: Yosemite Trails

The road to Fort Monroe was hot and dusty, but mitigated with cool streams and intervals of grateful forest and enlivened by many tracks of deer and bear. The afternoon sunlight was streaming full into the valley as we reached Artists’ Point. The narrowness of the gateway as it is seen from this point brings out strongly the gorge-like character of the depression, and in my opinion renders this the most striking of all the comprehensive views of the wonderful valley. When we reached Inspiration Point it lacked only an hour of sunset. The vast shadow of El Capitan lay already far across the valley, and a long purple promontory ran out from the foot of Three Brothers. I was reminded of the line of Virgil, by which, it is said, Millet was always deeply affected,—

“Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae.”1

1“And the great shadows fall from the high mountains.”

Certainly it harmonizes well with his sombre and sensitive genius.

 ⁴Ft Monroe

At the elevation around 5,600 feet we arrived at Fort Monroe. These structures were removed when the Wawona Tunnel was completed in July of 1933.

Fort Monroe was named for George F. Monroe, a stage driver for the Yosemite Stage Line. The "fort" was a stage team relay station, and a place where stage line customers and other travelers camped.

Monroe came to California with his uncle from his native Georgia in 1856 to meet his parents who had recently moved to Mariposa as part of the gold rush. George was 12 at the time. George's father Louis became a successful barber in Mariposa,[citation needed] and eventually bought and lived on a prosperous ranch south east of town.
In 1866 Monroe started working for the Wabash brothers, who ran the Yosemite Stage Line, and eventually got promoted to driver. He was said to excel at taking the team over the treacherous road, which included many sharp drop offs at the side of the road and numerous tight switch backs. He never had an accident that cost the company money nor injury to his passengers.[1] It is thought that an accident precipitated his own death at the age of 42. According to one account, he was riding as a passenger in the stage when a horse got away from the driver, and George clambered to the front horse to stop the team, in the course of which he injured himself. A few days later, after complaining of feeling ill, he died at his parents ranch. He was their only child.[2]
Monroe was said to be well known to travelers from Europe, as well as throughout the United States. Among his passengers over the years were presidents Grant, Garfield and Hayes

The location retained Monroe's name after his death. It was always a site of significance, from the stage and horse era of the late 19th century, well into the automobile era when for a time it was an entrance station, and was said to have a fine automobile camp.[3] When the Wawona Tunnel was built, the upper road was converted into part of the Pohono Trail, whose starting point is now located at the Tunnel View parking lot.

J Smeaton Chase: Yosemite Trails

We camped at Fort Monroe, and ate our supper between exclamations at the sunset color on the pines and cedars on the opposite hillside. The level light illuminated the forest with a radiance that was indescribably royal and august, and the great trees stood thoughtful and reverent, ripening their harvest in the golden air.

From just beyond our camp there opened a wonderful outlook to the west. The land here falls away almost precipitously two thousand feet to the cañon of the Merced, where it forms a sweeping amphitheatre at the point where Tamarack Creek enters from the north. Opposite, the unbroken forest rises to the high ridge that is held by the Merced Grove of Sequoias, and which here forms the watershed between the Merced and Tuolumne systems.

In the gathering dusk the myriad pinnacles of the forest rose into a pale, clear sky, down which the new moon passed musingly to sink behind the western mountains.