My friend Steve and I planned a three day weekend in Yosemite. His Friday meetings ended early so we left sooner than expected and could start hiking Friday instead of camping in the valley the first night. Thanks for driving Steve!
Mark and Steve
View from the car on drive in
View from the car on drive in
We grabbed some snacks at the mini grocery store in the valley on our way to fill out the self serve permit.
Filling out the permit
Starting from Backpackers Parking Lot
We started hiking at 3pm. The weather was perfect, we both wore shorts and traffic on the trail was light (for being so close to the valley). By 5pm we made it past both waterfalls and were on the flat trail to Little Yosemite Valley and the backpackers campground.
Beautiful Scenery (Waterfall bypass)
We arrived at the campground and found a spot, pitched the tents and filtered water. Steve filled up his dirty water bag when we left the river and kept it overnight in case he needed water in the morning (very clever).
By 7pm the tents were up
Lots of Backpackers so the park has toilets at the campground
The Bear Box (for food storage) made a perfect table
Dinner
For dinner Friday I had couscous with veggies (a very good base), but then I tried to be fancy with the ingredients. First I added bone broth to the couscous, which normally is not a problem by itself, but then I added a spicy tuna packet. I should have added either the bone broth or the tuna, but not both. The taste was a bit overpowering. I paired it with Hammer Recoverite. Steve had noodles with tuna and almond butter. Fewer ingredients is the trick.
I was very warm when I went to bed, but about 1am had to put on my beanie and puffy jacket because I started to get cold. Saturday morning we woke around 6am and started our day. The tent bottom was a little wet, but I flipped the tent over for a few minutes and it mostly dried. I made my shake the night before, so I was ready to start hiking in a few minutes. The sun was not up yet so we hiked with jackets, hats, and gloves. We finally saw the sun around 7:30 (we were in a valley so the mountains blocked the sun). By 10am we reached Clouds Rest.
View from Clouds Rest Summit
I was a bit faster than Steve so had time to lay out my tent to finish drying and enjoy the views. The ridge has some sections with near vertical cliffs on either side, so Steve took the bypass around the ridge and I walked the ridge.
Walking Along the Ridge
Due to the snow and lack of tracks we had a delay finding each other. Once reunited we checked the map and I used our GPS location on Strava to make sure we followed the trail. Since Strave only loads the map section you are in, and only when connected to data, I only had about a mile of trail till we dropped off the loaded map. I didn't have data so we needed to use Steve's phone at that point because he had an app that let you download maps to use offline. It was a good thing we used the app because one part of the trail was tricky and we would have had a hard time without the extra help.
Steve at Lunch
Mark's Pizza wrap with Guacamole
Hanging water bag connected to gravity filter, filling drinking bladder
It did not take long to drop below snow level. We filled up on water and looked for a spot to camp.
Saturday Night
Mashed potatoes, sausage, veggies, red pepper flakes
Spectacular Sunset
We were in our tents a little after 8 (I think it was closer to 7:30). That night I froze. It was so cold I had chucks of ice in my water bladder and water bottle in the morning. I went to bed wearing all my jackets and even rain pants. At about 1am my legs were so cold I took off a jacket and wrapped it around my legs, lucky I brought the fleece because it was needed. It was an odd feeling because at some points during the night I was warm, but because I didn't trust the new sleeping bag I was never relaxed. As the sun started to come up I strained to hear Steve making sounds so we could get up. Once I heard some movement (his sleeping quilt makes a noise when he moves from rubbing on his ground pad) I yelled and we agreed to get up. My hands and feet were frozen and I tried to warm up with lunges. I don't have any morning pictures till around 8 when we stopped to get water. By this time my hands and feet were feeling normal again.
This mess of logs has a creek under it, we filled our water here
With our water bottles/bladders full we started the decent back to the car. It was Sunday and the traffic heading to Clouds Rest and Half Dome (cables were still down) was about 15 people. But when we reached the waterfalls the number of people greatly increased.
Saturday we saw one person, Sunday we saw this
Most people don't venture past the waterfalls, so traffic increased the more we descended. This time we decided to take the Mist trail, and it was misting! My right side was facing the river and it was wet by the time we cleared the section.
This section is the narrowest
Notes:
We were back at the car by noon and driving home by one. We stopped at the mini grocery store so Steve could get a snack, I had a Recoverite.
Per Strava:
Friday
6.34 miles, 2,800 feet of elevation gain, 2:30 moving time
Saturday
12.2 miles, 4285 feet of elevation gain, 5:20 moving time
Sunday
10.1 miles, 147 feet of elevation gain, 4:00 moving time
- I need to rethink the sleeping bag I use. I will probably look into a lighter 15/20 degree bag to replace the Kelty.
- Fewer ingredients
- Saturday we had lots of snow and route finding, so 12 miles felt like a long day
- Friday and Sunday were below the snow line so we made good time (2.6 miles per hour)
