UNDER CONSTRUCTION. Version 0.2.

Summary:

Chris and Anh planned a five-day trip, starting at Tuolomne Meadows and mostly descending along the ("Grand Canyon of the ...") Tuolomne River, to Pate Valley. August 5 through 10, 2003.

Preparations:

I hadn't previously met any of the other participants, but we are all on one or more of the BayArea*ing yahoo email lists.

Over the last few trips, my progress toward becoming a lightweight backpacker has been working out pretty well gear-wise, less well body-wise. The biggest recent change is that I now use a snowpeak titanium pot, that is taller and narrower than my old boy scout mess kit, and so my MSR windscreen and my old homemade pot stand no longer work. I have been experimenting with using a bit of flexible alumininum ducting whose diameter barely exceeds that of the pot. It has the added benefit of being stretchable — it squishes down to about a 2 or 3 inch tall cylinder, and stretches out to be around 9 inches tall. I cut vents in the bottom to take in air, and a large divot near the top for the pot's handle.

I usually use a lightweight tarp over me, and a hunk of thin (2 mil) plastic sheeting as a groundcloth. This trip, I tried using a painter's dropcloth instead. Not a very successful experiment.

After packing up all of my food and everything except water, my pack weighed in at 20 pounds.

A few years ago, I had done a day hike to Waterwheel Falls and back, so I was familiar with the first stretch of our trail already. And Turly and I also did a hike from Hetch Hetchy that visited the stretch from Rancheria Falls to the dam (the last day of this trip's plan).

Tuesday 5 August: (SLV to Bay Area to Hetch Hetchy)

My car died the previous week, so I needed to get a ride to Yosemite. I took the highway 17 express bus over to the San Jose Caltrain station, and Anh picked me up there. We stopped at a grocery store and I bought some M&Ms to add into my trail mix, and some corn tortillas. We drove to the Hetch Hetchy backpackers campground, located the rest of the group (Ken and Bruce), and got things set up for the night.

Bruce and Ken had gotten there earlier in the day, and apparently, Bruce had been talking Ken into leaving things behind (in his car or a bear box), because Ken didn't really realize how much too heavy his pack was.

Wednesday 6 August: (Hetch Hetchy to TM to Waterwheel Falls)

We all piled into Bruce's van. Due to a mix-up, we had to stop in Yosemite Valley instead of just heading straight to Tuolomne Meadows. While in the Valley, I bought a spare MSR windscreen, in case my ducting invention failed or melted or something.

We got to TM, packed up, and started off. Hmm, plan was to be hiking by 8:30 am. Here it is 12:30 pm. Ok, so maybe we're a bit behind schedule.

I carried very little water at the start (just a one-liter bottle), figuring I'd fill up my 3-liter bag at Glen Aulin. We hiked along the road for a while, then past the soda springs, and finally onto trail and into some trees. Nice flattish walking along here. I saw and herded a garter snake to show it to some of the others. Hiked past some views of the Cathedral Range ...
.. and stopped for lunch at a spot where the Tuolomne River comes very close to the trail. At this point, we could tell that Ken was having a bit of trouble adjusting to the weight of his pack. I took his five-pound tent, to carry it for the rest of the day. Feeling pretty good, I started off a bit ahead of the rest of the group.

We soon got to the lower edge of TM. I really like this spot, though I've never been able to get a photo of it that brings home any sense why. At the west end of Tuolomne Meadows, the slow, meandering Tuolomne River finds the granite edge, gathers together and turns into a leaping, frothy series of cascades and cataracts.

When I reached the bridge over the River, I found a nice resting place to wait for the rest of the group. From here, it's only 1.7 miles down to Glen Aulin, and we soon get some views of the rocks that surround the glen and of the pair of creek canyons (Cold Creek and Conness Creek) that meet each other and the Tuolomne River very near the Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp.

Last time I was here (July 1999), it was much later in the afternoon, and Tuolomne Falls was sporting a wonderful rainbow. This time, I think we arrived at Tuolomne Falls a bit too early in the afternoon to see that rainbow.

We stopped and rested a bit at Glen Aulin HSC, and I filled my Platypus water bag, and yow! Now my pack was about 12 pounds heavier (Ken's tent and the water) than when I started the day. Not really lightweight, anymore. Anh tried to convince Ken to stay at Glen Aulin and return to Tuolomne Meadows. Most of the rest of us gave him the benefit of the doubt.

We passed California Falls, and a few unnamed cascades, got to Le Conte Falls and I (again) confused myself into thinking that it might be Waterwheel Falls. It does have some Waterwheels on it.

More descending finally brought us down to the top of WWF. We scouted around a bit, and decided to camp in the area just above the falls. There are several small flat spots, far enough away from the river (though still pretty close to the trail).

Most of us did some camp set up (for Bruce, that consisted entirely of laying out a tarp, and putting his sleeping bag on it. I actually rigged up my tarp and groundcloth. Chris and Anh went swimming. Everyone did their cooking for dinner. My stretchy duct pot stand/windscreen worked pretty well, and the pepsi can stove got my water boiling quickly enough. We actually had a campfire (an unusual luxury for most of us). Anh spent much of the evening drying her bathing suit over the fire.

Thursday 7 August: (WWF to Pate Valley)

Slept well. Up and out before 9am, headed on down past WWF. Now, it really feels like we're deep in a canyon. Through some sugar pines (huge cones). Past a bridge over Return Creek. Walked along next to the Tuolomne River for quite a ways, mostly a gentle descent. There was a trailwork crew there, doing the sort of work that hardened criminals used to have to (literally) kill someone to get assigned. I've been curious about the way they drill the holes in the rock, and one of the guys pointed out their "?pionyore?" tool, a sort of portable swedish jackhammer. (I saw the swedish word, but only remember it vaguely.) The day was warming, and then we had to climb up several hundred feet, over a rib above Muir Gorge. Ken was starting to get pretty slow for that climb.

At one point while I was waiting for him and Chris, a pretty young blonde woman walked by. Curious how close we were to the top, I watched her climb in order to see where the trail would go from here. Several minutes later, just before she was out of sight, she turned and waved. I figured that that was the last we'd see of her. I thought it was cool to see a woman on a solo backpacking trip.

Once we had reached the top and were treated to the view of the next section of the Canyon, we stopped for lunch. A large black ant was crawling on the rock next to Ken, and he picked it up, killed it and ate it.
Someone asked him "What do they taste like?"
He said "It taste like bee."

We stopped at Register Creek's pretty waterfall, and then headed on down towards the Tuolomne.

This is a good a Muir Gorge shot as I could get with the disposable camera. We're looking back upstream; the trail had climbed way up and over the ridge on the left side of this picture.

Ken makes his mosquito mistake. (Encountering the first nasty cloud of mosquitoes that we'd seen all day, he stops in the middle of it to slowly remove his pack, dig around for the bug juice, and apply it.) I finally lost my patience, simply saying "I gotta go." I walked on, maybe 200 yards, to a nice, breezy, rocky, mosquito-free spot and waited there.

Ken got slower yet. I offered (to Chris) to walk Ken out to White Wolf. At this point, I was getting worried whether Ken would make it to Pate Valley before dark. I finally suggested that I could walk ahead, to Pate Valley, drop my pack, and then come back and take some of Ken's weight. So I went "speed hiking" to PV. Dumb. I got some chafing.

Along this stretch, you pass one of the nicer looking pools on this whole section of the Tuolomne. With a different trip plan, I would have stopped and spent a few hours here.

When I headed back, Ken & Chris had made it to within a half mile of PV, because Chris had taken Ken's bear canister. So I took that from Chris, thinking that I shoulda thought of that (carrying Ken's bear box) earlier.

Got there. Mud. Meadow. Several people. Weird colored streams. Warm water. No tarp tonight, just the groundcloth. Another campfire. We saw no one at the campground.

A decision to split up. Bruce offers to walk Ken out to White Wolf.

The rest of us (Chris, Anh, and me) plan to get up and be on the trail before 5am, in order to hit the next stretch in the cool of the morning.

Friday 8 August: (Pate Valley to just past (Un)Pleasant Valley)

Today's journey starts with about a thousand meters of climbing, and we want to hit it while it's cool. We're also concerned about the availability of water during the climb. So we are on the trail by 4:50 am, walking in the dark. I stay between Chris and Anh since the only lights I carry are little Photon squeeze-LED lights. The climbing starts.

Luckily, it stayed quite cool; the switchbacks we were climbing were on the east side of a pretty valley, so the sun came late to them. Wonderful views of the waterfalls on Piute Creek, which gets here after seeing Benson Lake and "Pleasant" Valley. Halfway up, my stomach was getting upset, I stopped and rested (not quite as long as I shoulda). Anh found a nice rock and caught a nap. After I started feeling a bit better, we climbed on. Relatively uneventful climb, though I was definitely going very slowly. Once we reached the trail junction near the top, we stopped to rest for an hour or more. During this time, the same pretty blonde women (by now, I was thinking of her as "GB") came by, and we chatted a little. Turned out that she too had stayed at Pate Valley, but far enough away that we never knew. Again, I figured that that was the last we'd see of her.

From our vantage point on the ridge, we could see that we would descend to Table Lake and Pleasant Valley, and then would have some switchbacks to climb to get up near the top of Rancheria Mountain. The map told us that it would be about another 1400 feet of climbing, and looking at it told us that it would be in the sun in the morning.

After some nice, relatively level trail along the ridge, we descended towards Table Lake. We had been so looking forward to swimming in the lake that we spent some time looking for a decent place, but it was mostly somewhat stagnant water, covered with water lilies. In separate incidents, Anh and I each scared up a covey of quail. We decided to push on to Pleasant Valley.

Just before we got there, we reached Piute Creek in a nice, open rocky area, with some pools along the creek. So we went swimming there. Once we were done and ready to go look for a camp, it was about six pm. Anh suggested dinner right there; I thought that Pleasant Valley itself might have flatter places for that.

We found the place where the trail crossed the creek; there was a log that could be walked across. Just before the trip, a ranger had told Chris "there is no water on Rancheria Mountain" which meant that we would need to tank up here. Unfortunately, it was the worst time of day for mosquitoes. I was plagued with them while filtering water. We decided to push on until we were out of the mosquito cloud. We started calling the place "(Un)Pleasant Valley".

The climbing was very hard on me, but Chris eventually found a beautiful spot on the rocks with a fantastic view of the Tuolomne Canyon. I just laid down and didn't move for some time, except for taking this photo of Anh against the south wall of the Tuolomne's awesome canyon.

*AnhPic*], while they made their dinner. I was really out of it by the end of this day.

Once the sun went down and it started cooling, I got the shivers. Fearing hypothermia, I quickly dug out my groundcloth and sleeping bag and climbed in. Anh and Chris really helped get me to eat some chicken soup, and I started feeling better.

Later, Chris went back to (Un)Pleasant Valley to filter some more water.

Saturday 9 August: (Over Rancheria Mountain, to Rancheria Falls)

My son's 27th birthday today. Happy Birthday, Nik!

Considering how hard yesterday's climbing was on me, I took these switchbacks very slowly. Turns out there are about a dozen of them, and my mind was making up all sorts of numeric associations with the numbers, turning them into times, dates, fractions, climbing ratings, anything to keep my mind off of the effort.

Before I knew it, we had entered the forested part, and arrived at the junction with the trail that heads toward the PCT. Cool!

A bit more climbing (but gentler) got us to the trail's high point, near the top of Rancheria Mountain.

Fields of Mule's ears? Skunk Cabbage? Corn lilies? Very bright-colored, rich fir cones. A dead chipmunk. A rock mooned us.

Stopped at one creek where C&A got water. I walked on ahead, figuring to stop at the next water. Turned out to be a couple of miles, and a very nice spot to stop. We had lunch here, cooled off, rested, got our feet wet, and so on.

Eventually, GB showed up, and we talked some more. She had a more detailed topo map, and we studied it a bit. I thought it would be nice to have a name for her, so I introduced Chris, Anh, and myself. The reply I heard was "I'm Shirley. See you along the trail."

Twenty yards later, she turned and said "Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Lori." It made me laugh. Chris was reminded of the movie "Airplane!" [ "... and don't call me Shirley!" ]

Ah, more downhill. Lots of it, and not too steep. Thank goodness for the hiking poles. We saw a grouse pretty close, up on a burned tree snag.

A bit after we identified Le Conte Point, I was getting impatient to get to some water and cool off, so I took off on ahead, telling C&A that I'd meet them at the bridge over Rancheria Falls. The descent gets steeper along here.

Some time later, I heard a voice that turned out to be Lori's. She had encountered an aggressive snake, and it turned out that she's not from this area, so isn't very familiar with California snakes. We stomped and whacked the ground when we passed the spot she'd seen the snake, and then walked together the rest of the way to Rancheria Falls.

(Aside: I often read trip reports where people toss pebbles at snakes. I wonder why so few think to stomp. I should look it up. )

I stopped to get wet and cool off at Rancheria Falls, while Lori headed on down to the nearby campground to stake out a spot or two. It being Saturday night and this being the closest campground to the Hetch Hetchy trailhead, I had expressed concern about space availability at the campground. Turned out not to be a problem.

C&A showed up after 5 or 10 minutes, cooled off in the water a bit, and then we walked down to the campground. Found a spot, and then went really swimming in one of the nearby pools. Here, we realized that aside from Lori, we had seen no one else since Thursday night.

Dinner: my pot stand stopped working [details?] and I was glad I had bought the spare.

I invited Lori to come over to our campfire that night for a bit, and she did. Turns out she had been in the mountains for roughly a month, while checking email in Lee Vining and other nearby towns with Internet access, working on figuring out where to go next.

Wrenched my knee that night, slightly hyperextending it by stepping in an unseen hole.

Sunday 10 August: (Back to the tunnel and the dam at Hetch Hetchy)

A little ways past the Rancheria Falls campsite, there is this nice pair of pools with a bumpy-looking slide connecting them.

Anh gave me a stretchy knee brace. Cool water at Wapama Falls. This stretch of trail is an oven, though nowhere near as bad as it was when Turly and I hiked here two or three years ago.

Tueeulala Falls was just a darker streak of dry rock on the cliff above us. Ken shows up! Sans heavy pack. Lori again; no photo sorry. She and I walked and talked together for the last couple of hours of the hike, traded email addresses, and then she took off for Tuolomne Meadows, while I waited in the cool tunnel for C&A. It's amazing how many ill-prepared folks will head out onto that oven of a trail to Wapama Falls without hats, food, water ... sheesh.

Very fun trip, overall.

Post-mortem:

Work out a better pot stand. Drink more water and gatorade. Pace yourself better on big climbs.

Did better on the food than I have on past trips: this time, I only returned with one full day's worth of food.