Life of Wry

On a tip from the guy we’d met at the top of Tenaya peak the day before, we set off to find one of the park’s many hidden treasures: a long and deep slot canyon, or crevasse, we weren’t exactly sure.. but understood it was to be found in a mountain slope somewhere southwest of Elisabeth Lake, in a ridge that includes Unicorn Peak and Cockscomb.

Alrighty then.

The trail to Elisabeth Lake starts right at the Tuolumne Meadows campground, a place we tend to avoid for the crowds.  In all these years, it was the first time we’d taken this trail.  Amazingly, the trail was reasonably spare of people.

But not mosquitoes.

After about a mile and a half, you get out of the forest and off the first slope.  Another mile or so on a gentle slope brings you to Elisabeth Lake, which we completely bypassed, instead continuing west, mostly, and up.  It was very, very pretty.

Here we’re heading toward the ridge:

This may be Unicorn, not certain:

We went maybe another mile. The closer we got to the mountain, the dicier it got, lots of huge talus, most of it stable, but some of it wobbly, and many steep snowbanks to traverse.  We figured out that even if we found the slot, it was likely filled with snow and impassable.  Plus, the mosquitoes were unbearable.  So we started back down, proclaiming the journey was the objective, and we’d had a nice hike, and it was fine.

Views on the way back looked like this… not bad!

Many open (boggy, hillocky) meadows:

And much creek jumping:

And did I mention mosquitoes?

So didn’t get anywhere in particular, but it had been a fine day, even so.  We returned to the cabins and found a table next to the Dana Fork to eat our lunches.  While sitting around talking, we made a decision to go home.. kind of sudden and unexpected, but it made sense, too.   I have so many injuries right now, each day was getting increasingly painful.. mostly the same old achilles tendon thing, but additionally some hip issues and foot issues all combining to produce shooting pains, limited range of motion, lots of tenderness.. all icky.  If we stayed, Jim and Peter could keep hiking and I could hang out, read, but the mosquitoes were so horrendous that seemed unappealing.  Peter had also had a birthday party he’d wanted to attend but couldn’t because of the trip… and this suddenly came into play.  All that contributed to the decision, and when the front desk said we could check out without consequence, that sealed the deal.

Felt a little stunned by the change of plans.  It was extremely sad and disorienting to pack up three days early.  Even after a full week or ten days of hiking it’s hard to leave Tuolumne Meadows.   But we did, with equal parts doubt and resolve.  And it was emotional.. but we left.

We did a quick and sloppy job of emptying the cabin and packing the car. The drive home was quiet.  Didn’t eat at PJ’s.  The good news is that we’ll be back next year–our cabin is already reserved–and hopefully we’ll be injury-free and California will not have record rainfall that results in a mosquitoey year.

And we did talk about all the hikes we want to do next time… August 2012 can’t come soon enough.