Backpacking Yosemite

Standing on Cloud's Rest looking back on Half-Dome

When a friend from my time in med school called me and asked if I wanted to spend a week backpacking in Yosemite I jumped on it. With no Grand Canyon this year I had to do some big adventure, and scout camp doesn't count. I had it on my calender to look forward to all year. My friend Jeff Hall had been there a few times and his enthusiasm for the place was contagious. I didn't worry about training because while Jeff is generally fit he's not a highly trained athlete so I figured I wouldn't slow him down.

We drove across Nevada from Jeff's house in St. George on Monday, August 20. Nevada impressed me once more as a desolate wasteland. Almost immediately after entering California things changed. The Sierra Nevada mountains rose up out of the desert looking majestic and intimidating. The high country was stunning with solid granite spires and domes at every turn. Tuolomne Meadows was pretty but looked dry. We didn't see any giant sequoias but I was impressed with the size of the trees there. They are generally much taller and wider than the biggest trees in Utah. It's hard to believe they can grow like that when there seems to be little soil covering the solid granite contours

We planned to drive down to the valley, park the truck and take a shuttle back up to our trailhead. We hurried to get our permits and park somewhere legal. Then we got on the wrong bus and arrived too late to catch the shuttle. So we had to drive back up to Tuolomne meadows. We gave a ride to another couple that also missed the bus. This is where I first learned how Jeff likes to interview other hikers. We had several conversations every day that went something like this:

Jeff: Hi, we're from Utah. Have you ever heard of Mormons?
Hiker: Uh, yeah.
Jeff: Have you ever wondered why we're so happy? You should look up lds.org when you get home and check it out.
There were lots of conversations that followed some variation of that blueprint depending on how long our fellow hikers stayed within conversation range. It sometimes made me a little nervous but I had to admire the guy in some ways. Jeff was also funny about getting people's itineraries and then telling them every detail he knew about where they were headed. He knows a lot about the park and he's not shy about sharing.

They are paranoid about bears in that park. Nobody is allowed in the back country without a big plastic bear-proof can to put food and trash in. They post photos of trashed cars to scare people into making sure not even a candy wrapper was left in a car to attract bears. So I was naturally optimistic that we might see a bear. Other hikers told us stories about camping in places with so many bears around at night that they packed up and moved somewhere else. We saw bear scat on trails and claw marks on trees, but never saw a single bear. What a disappointment.

We spent the first night at a crowded backpacker campground at Tuolomne Meadows. Jeff was in charge of the food and he made sure we ate well. If I was planning the menu we would have ramen noodles every night and trail mix and granola bars for every other meal. But Jeff is interested in little luxuries. He brought a collapsible kitchen sink to wash dishes. And he had an elaborate mess kit so we could cook cobbler, pancakes and other goodies besides the regular freeze-dried backpacker meals. Plus we had kipper snacks and tuna quesedillas for lunches.

Jeff and me in front of Cathedral Peak

We took the Cathedral Lakes trailhead in the morning and ate lunch at the lake. I couldn't get enough of Cathedral Peak and how different it looked from various points on the trail. We climbed over a pass and descended to Sunrise High Sierra Camp. There was no water there, so we climbed over another ridge and camped at the highest of the 3 Sunrise Lakes, sharing a campfire with a couple of California surfer dudes. We saw a spectacular sunset there that lit up the Sierra, including Cloud's Rest and Half Dome. We thought we saw a bear outside camp, but it was only a pair of eyes that wouldn't leave. I suspect they belonged to a coyote that we saw walking around the lakes looking for campsite leftovers in the morning.

Wednesday we hiked to the base of Cloud's Rest and stashed our packs for the ascent. The views from there were the best we saw in the park. Then we descended a steep trail and camped at Sunrise Creek, which was running thanks to the rain we had Tuesday night. We were worn out every night by the time we got to our campsites. We did about 9-10 miles each of the first two days and 12 the last day.

Thursday morning we again stashed our packs for the hike up Half-Dome. It gets difficult going up irregular stone staircases cut into the granite, and then comes the highlight, which involves hauling yourself up cables on about a 60 degree slope. By the time I got close to the top my upper body was getting tired. Going down was more scary and there were traffic jams with so many people trying to come up. We took the Mist trail down to the valley so we could see the waterfalls. They were spectacular but the trail consisted of more stone stairs that were hard on a backpacker's knees.

The final ascent on Half Dome

Half Dome

Looking up the canyon from the "Diving Board" on Half Dome

Vernal Falls

The valley floor was a welcome relief. We stayed in the tent cabins at Curry Village. The shower and buffet dinner were great after 3 days of backpacker food. It turned out that Curry Village was infested with Hantavirus carrying deer mice and several people have died in the past few weeks who stayed there. Not that I'm nervous, but I'll breathe easier when the 6 week incubation period for that disease is over. We wandered around the park including the 5 star hotel there and thought about how cool it would be to stay there in the winter.

Friday morning we took the shuttle back to the truck, then Jeff drove us back across Nevada at over 100mph. Jeff's wife Crystal met us in Cedar City so I could cut a couple hours off my drive home. Thus ended my high adventure trip for 2012. I need to start planning something for next year.