Life of Wry

The day started like this, which was a clue.  Rarely does a Sierra day begin with clouds, that doesn’t end with rain.  But, I swear, photos in Yosemite are so much more spectacular with cloud action, no?

This is taken from the shuttle stop for the Cathedral Lakes trailhead, looking East up the meadow at Lembert Dome.

The day was exciting and satisfying because of our youngest hikers, Matthew and Dean, ten-years-old, who are becoming more fearless and awesome with every passing year.

The Cathedral Lakes region, surrounded by granite, is such a spectacular spot.  The 3.5 mile slog out of the meadow–through forest, across creeks, over morains–is rewarded by a grand view of Cathredral Peak, such a Yosemite landmark.  You eat lunch right beneath it, with other monster domes surrounding you.  There’s abundant scrambling on granite slopes–entertaining for kids (and moms)–and endless cross country options.   We’ve descended out of this area in numerous, non-trail ways, which is super fun.

I didn’t shoot a pic of Cathedral this year, but here are a couple from past years; this one is from 2005 and is a seriously doofussy picture of me, but cute of Peter (age 7) and shows the peak, so what the hell:

And here’s another from 2009, taken of the peak from above Upper Cathedral on a cross country over to Budd Lake; you can see Peter in the distance:

Anyway, back to 2011..

Because of late snow melt, it was a mosquitoey year.. so grateful for head nets:

We ambled up slope a bit, across a small snow field, to try and escape mosquitoes lakeside, but they found us.

Ate lunch on a slab and watched (with mild discomfort) as Ben and Peter picked their way up the mountain side.  Peter took a surer route back while Ben opted for the more spectacular controlled slide down a 30′ section of granite into a snow bank (last 15′ were not so controlled, we’re told, but fun).

After lunch, the others headed back down the trail, and Jim, Peter and I decided to continue up, hoping to explore a new route to and out of Budd Lake.  We got more or less this far up the saddle and got this view of Lower Cathedral….

.. before thunder and rain scared us right back down again.  (Scared were Peter and me… not Jim so much.)  It was quite slippery on the exposed granite slabs and a little to0 dramatic to feel comfortable.

Still, a great day.  By the time we got to the bottom, the meadow looked like this, and the rains had stopped.

This is a picture looking West down the meadow at Pothole Dome, shot while waiting for the shuttle back to the cabins.