Life of Wry

John Muir once described these lakes as “a glacier basin with ten glassy lakes set all near together like eggs in a nest.”

Later start today than usual. Lingered in the dining room over breakfast with three 30-somethings from LA, two were very inexperienced hikers and one was eager. <smile> Gave them lots of tips.. not sure what they’ll do.

After the taping/bracing ritual (just ugh!), headed out of the meadow to the trailhead for Ten Lakes Basin (started hiking at 11:20). We’d done this trail once before and I’d remembered it as flat for 4-ish miles until you reached a major climb to a pass. Slow going but doable.

Well… the trail was not flat, in fact it rose about 1400′ in elevation over those 4 miles (and took two hours to get to the meadow). Not huge, but not trivial (approx 350’/mi). The last 1 mile goes up 768′ (to be exact-ish) to a big flat pass. From the pass, we went on another .3 miles and dropped 100′ or so, and had lunch on the edge of a promontory that gave us a jaw dropping view of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, 4 of 10 lakes, and the Sierra Crest. Three hours to lunch spot, sat for an hour. Two and a half hours back, got to car at 6pm.

Total on the day: 10.6 miles, 2171′ gain.

Okay, let’s start back at the trailhead (and ignore their mileage, since it’s usually creative):

We’re going to go to the first bump (the pass, 5.0 miles) and then walk .3 beyond that for lunch and a view.

We started in a burned up forest, which was pretty in its own way:

The trail followed the Yosemite Creek drainage, some of it in forest, some of it in open granite-covered areas with sweeping views. It’s a really pleasant trail.

The end of the easy stuff and beginning of the 1-mile climb is the Half Moon Meadow… we thought we might get rain..

This is nearing the top and it’s starting to level out again …love when the blue sky gets closer and closer…

This is the pass…

Lunch was so welcome!

Here are some of our views:

The big one’s Mt. Dana (that Peter will climb on the last day… before breakfast).

That lake down there is most people’s destination. I think it’s called Ten Lakes? Grant Lake, we believe, is on the right side, other side of that mountain, out of view. There’s a tiny lake above the big one. Not sure its name.

We had to do some of these… (they’re on the edge, drop off is substantial behind them). The “Grand Canyon” is down and wraps around to the left.

This is basically where we are.. follow that little .1 mile spur…

Time to head back… needed to climb back up to the pass (about 100′).. Peter’s out ahead:

A final look at the pass before dropping down into the Yosemite Creek drainage (pretty up there!):

And then we hustled back.. no pictures until the very end.. when back in the burned forest.. one wild flower patch remains…

Again, made it back to car by 6, to the tent cabins by 6:30, showered and to the dining room by 7:15!

And just for fun.. here’s what the damn feet look like… blistered, taped..

We had dinner with a couple from Chico. So impressive. He’s 78-ish, she’s close to that (Don and Suzanne). They are camping out, ultra light folks — no tent or sleeping bags (just a tarp and a quilt), and plan to backpack for a few days. Nights up here are in the low 30s. They are super hearty.

We played pub quiz this night in our beds! Still a hoot. Of the four quizzes we’ve done: K:1, J:1, P:2

Here’s a shot from the middle of the night.. pee run.. always look up. (That’s a corner of our tent, some trees.. and stars.)