June 8, 2014 - Snow Creek(Indian Rock)

 Title: June 8, 2014 - Snow Creek(Indian Rock)

Trail head: Porcupine Flat

Hike Info:

Type:  Hiking

Trail: Indian Rock/Snow Creek

Destination: Yosemite Valley

Distance:  8.94 miles

Start Time:  9:26

End Time:   4:08

Travel Time: 6:42 (1.33 mph)

Moving Time: 4:43 (1.90  mph)

Elevation Rise: 527'
Descent:  3,777'

Maximum Elevation: 7,901

Description:
Let me begin with saying, I will probably be loosing a toe nail from this hike. Does that mean that I hated this hike? No Way! A great trail and a hiking companion I enjoyed, what more could a hiker want?

Karol and Gary at the Start

 Got up early as we want to make sure that we get to Murphy's Inn by 8 when John and Cathey leave. Sherri gets up at 6. Donna H leaves early, but still a bit later than what I thought she would. We head to the Whoa Nellie Deli and the three of us-Karol, Sherri, and I-share two breakfast burrito's. We are content. For once I think John is in relax mode. We leave Lee Vining a bit later than I expected. Only Dennis, Karol, John and Cathey, Sherri and I will be walking this trail. Rose and Darrell wind up doing the same Indian Rock trail as us, but not part of this group. 

Karol and I will be walking part of the trail, then branch off down the Snow Creek trail. Sherri and Dennis will pick us up at the bottom in Yosemite Valley. We leave the car at 9:30, later than we were hoping for. It is starting to be warm, but not bad, yet. The first couple miles of our walk is more of rolling terrain. We go down the old Tioga road bed-it still has asphalt on it. The decline is a bit steep-how did those old cars make it up this thing anyway? Then eventually leaves the road bed and changes into a trail. Lots of trees to provide shade. We cross a few creeks and in general make good time. Because of the moistness, I get to start slapping myself in a vain attempt to rid my body of mosquito's. About two miles in, we come to the junction with the Snow Creek trail. Sherri, Dennis, John and Cathey continue on to the Indian Rocks and Natural Arch area. Karol and I leave them and head down the Snow Creek Trail.

A common mistake is that if it is downhill, it must be easy. Well when that downhill is just short of 4,000' over six miles, your body takes a pounding. You throw in exposure to the sun and things can get ugly pretty quickly. But for Karol and I, this trip was offset by so much eye candy that it compensated for the aches we would feel.

Snow Creek

Snow Creek

So what was this trail like? It ran 150 yards parallel with Snow Creek for most of the way to a foot bridge. Far enough away in the beginning that you knew it was there, but no bugs were inflicting themselves on me. After a mile and a half, we come close to Snow Creek, and what a sight awaits us. First, there are the usual Sierra cascading creek. This is always good for a break. But then, we go down a little further and see that where we were standing, the water actually goes under granite, only to emerge in some falls-not the Snow Creek Falls either which is way further down. I think I am falling in love with this creek!

Granite Arch and Waterfall

But as we travel down the creek, I start looking for the footbridge across the creek. Not so much because we cross the bridge, but that will mark where we come out of the Snow Creek drainage and now descend the wall of Tenaya Canyon. Someplace a bit before noon, we see the bridge and break for lunch a hundred yards down the trail. Pleasant time, but we can feel that the air is warming up. So we do not lollygag around, but we do enjoy our lunch. I almost feel like I am mooching off of Karol. I had raved so much about Nutella, she bought a bottle of it. Not only that, she supplied me with some salami. I am really enjoying the lunch.

Gary and Karol at Point 7600'

Before hitting the trail, we wander out to Point 7600. This point overlooks Tenaya Canyon. What a view! If Karol thought Olmsted gave her a great view, this puts her right in the middle of the action. To the north of us is the Watkins Pinnacles; across is Clouds Rest and there is Half Dome as you do not see it anyplace else. On Half Dome, I am not sure, but I think I see people going up it. But even more impressive is the depth of the canyon. We look straight down. Tall trees look shorter than matchsticks.  We could spend a whole long time up here and not tire of it. But we do need to get down.

Upper Tenaya Canyon

Lower Tenaya Canyon

We cut over to meet the trail at the end of the point. Now the trail starts to descend in earnest. Not only does the landscape change-the gentle, but persistent downhill to a "we are going down a 3700' cliff"-but the whole scenery changes. First for starters, even though the creek may only be a couple hundred yards away, we never hear it, let alone see it again. A rock ridge blocks that view. Another is the pines give way to more chaparral-brush with oaks and some pines. Consequently we are more exposed to the sun. Even though the temperature reached 84, being in the direct sun and the reflecting granite rock made it feel at least ten degrees warmer. We are constantly sucking on our water. Fortunately, for whatever reason, I am doing pretty well in that department so I have an excess and keep well hydrated. It enables me to share my supply.

But what really hurt was the gravel. Several places there was a granite sheet with gravel on it. a couple of times Karol slipped on the granite-I came close to going down myself. One of the times Karol strained her calf muscles. So for about three miles going down this trail, she was favoring one leg. Does not make for a fun walk.

Half Dome

But she kept smiling and enjoying herself. Just that makes the going better. We would watch the other wall getting taller and taller. Or Tenaya Creek become more than just a trickle into something which even has a few minor falls.  Or seeing the granite forms change their shape as our perspective changes. As we descend, one of my favorite parts is watching the tall trees come up to greet us. It is almost like they are there to honor us into their lands.

Karol walking the trail

Karol has been keeping cool by having a wet scarf around her neck. When we reach the bottom, we and rest for a few minutes. I go a little ways to get water from Tenaya Creek. Not that we would want to drink it yet, but at least I am able to dip clothing into the water to cool us down. Also filled one of Karol's empty water bottles so we had cool water with us to soak the cloth. We do not stay too long as the mosquito's have found Karol.

Now that we have reached bottom, we can almost taste relief from the heat. But the level ground does not seem to help the strained muscle too much. That mile to Mirror Lake is wearing on us.  When we get to Mirror Lake, we stop at an outhouse. A SAR worker, Shelby, was taking down a poster about a missing hiker. So I asked her if it would be ok to give Karol a ride down to the shuttle. After getting permission, she did even more. She took us to Camp Curry where Sherri and Dennis are waiting. What a surprise having us drive up in a SAR vehicle. Thank You Shelby!

As long as we are at Camp Curry, we grab a couple ice cold water bottles. Tastes so good. Then on to Todds for dinner. Good food is always the way to end a hike.

Trail Lesson:

Start early, stay hydrated. But mostly enjoy where you are and who you are with.

Snow Creek

Snow Creek close to our lunch spot

Climbers on Half Dome

Half Dome

Half Dome

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.