Life of Wry

We started the day having breakfast with a darling German family… a mom, dad and two adorable blonde daughters (who spoke wonderful English). It always amazes me to encounter international visitors up in TM. Most Yosemite tourists go to the valley. The high country is a worthy destination, but far fewer people go there (a huge part of the attraction for us). It’s relatively remote and less sensationalized (the valley is worth all the sensationalizing it gets.. it’s just crowded). It tends to attract hikers and old Sierra Club tree hugger types. The typical profile is Bay Area, coming for decades, REI w/ a smidge of hippie character. We feel among friends in Tuolumne, esp the tent cabins. You typically have to make tent reservations a year in advance.. and that’s challenging for foreigners. Yet.. we do meet folks from all over the world up there and I always feel so proud of our park, feel like it’s the best the US offers.

We mobilized fairly quickly after breakfast — KT, moleskin, bandaids, knee braces, toe caps notwithstanding — and were at the Pothole Dome trailhead by 10:30. We’d decided on a hike to the closed-for-the-summer (sad) High Sierra Camp.. Glen Aulin. It’s approx 5-6 miles down to Glen Aulin. Most of it is river-grade, until you get to where the canyon walls narrow and the falls get bigger (Tuolumne Fall and White Cascade Falls). The trail drops about 600-700 feet over about a mile and a half, which makes the climb out a grunt, but not horrible.

This is a hike that we’ve done probably a dozen times (maybe more).. at least the first portion of it. It’s a much beloved area of Tuolumne Meadows for us as we used to take Peter and whichever kids were around (Ben, Matthew, Dean, Eli, Jem, Jacob, Walter, Jocelyn, Kalea… ) to the river for whole afternoons of river play. The Lyell Fork and Dana Fork combine in the main meadow to form the larger Tuolumne River, which then heads down a dramatic canyon (called the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne). Along the way, the river has countless swimming holes and natural granite water slides and is surrounded by hop-able boulders and massive granite slabs and even a sandy beach or two.

Today the shoreline was unrecognizable and our usual play spots were difficult to find as the water level was so low. No less spectacular, just different.

We started at Pothole Dome. Jim and Peter climbed the steep face of Pothole (as they do), I ambled around to the side and took a longer, but less exposed/steep route (as I do). We met at the top at 10:45 (it’s only about 250′ of climb).

Some shots:

At the top… (there is forever ambling up there… and other points that may be higher.. ):

With its view of the huge Tuolumne Meadow (just a snippet here) and the Tuolumne River wending its way to the canyon.

Here are a bunch of photos taken on the way down…

On this west side of the river, it’s a fisherman’s trail, not a hiking trail… so you’re up on the banks, sometimes boulder hopping, sometimes traversing giant granite slabs, climbing over downed trees, crossing meadows.. it’s never the same way twice.

Eventually you get to an area dubbed Devil’s Post Pile (not the one in Mammoth, but lots of basalt rock and definitely a different feel)… funnily, none of these show the basalt rock.. but it’s there.

We then reached the bridge, where the official Glen Aulen trail comes in. From here, it’s about a mile and a half down to the High Sierra Camp, and much steeper as the canyon narrows. From here, we’ll be on a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, as it heads north towards Canada.

This is Tuolumne Falls, usually more dramatic, but very small in this pic. Still.. to stand there, it was plenty dramatic and thunderous.

Looking downriver…

Made it down, and had lunch at the camp, looking at White Cascade Falls… a relative trickle today. That’s one cute guy there.

After about an hour for lunch, we headed back up the trail.. (that’s the top of Tuolumne Falls in the distance):

After 4-ish miles, we got back up to where the river levels out and you see an always gorgeous view of the meadow…

Then a long amble back though a forest. In the past, we skirted most of this forest.. though it felt great to walk in deep shade and coolness.

We then reached an open part of the meadow and saw a sizeable herd of bucks — and some non-bucks, but mostly bucks (!) — bounding through the grass. Damn graceful, those.

The trail then routed us back and over a bit of Pothole… (returning this way was new for us).

And then back to the trailhead and a stunning view of a late afternoon meadow. Looking east, that’s Lembert Dome on the left.

We got back in time to shower and play a pub quiz in the lodge before dinner. The pub quizzes were a fun thing to have, if demoralizing. Dinner was with a solo hiker, Susan, 76, who’s completing the last snip of the 2,656 mile Pacific Crest Trail. Over a couple of decades, she’s been chipping away at it (says AI: Doing the PCT in sections over time is called section hiking, and it can also be referred to as a LASH, or Long Ass Section Hike). She’s got a 70-mile section left — from Tuolumne to the Sonora Pass, and will take 11 days to do that. She’s got champagne on board. She was very interesting. Also at our table was a father and son from SF, from whom we learned a lot about rent control apartments in the City.

Always a hoot.

Fully settled, into the routine. Jim’s feeling nauseous and didn’t sleep that well (elevation + age, we think), Peter was a bit cold (temps were down in the low 30s!), I slept okay and woke singing Queen’s We Are the Champions of the World. So.. yeah… happy and rarin’ to go. We are finding that we have 2 bars of connectivity — enough for Wordle, Connections and Spelling Bee. We can reach people, we can post to FB, we can stay up on email. Game changer. Connectivity is better than in Lodge.. maybe it’s the hill?

We got to breakfast by 8:00… not hurried, nobody to keep a schedule with.. damn, this is going to be great!

Ate with Rick and Ann, the ones from last night. Had a good breakfast. No self-serve continentals anymore. But fine.

Returned to cabin and, honest to god, it took about 30 minutes to suit up..and that’s because this old person with the wonky knees has a whole bunch of strategies (advised by Shanette the PT). So.. there was Kinesio Tape, knee stabilizing braces, sticks, and — because my boots are not my friends — all manner of foot and toe-protective cushioning. Also a bandaid over one nail-less bed, prophylactic ibus, preventative moleskin on two other potentially troublesome spots.. you get the idea. These wide-toe-box Altra boots are on their second (and last) season. Like the two sets of boots before them, they are not working for my feet. One has to really love hiking to mess with all this.

Mobilized by 10:15 or so. Decided on the Lyell Fork (I was really lobbying hard for this.. wanting a long flat hike to acclimatize, remembering past years’ first hikes… and wanting to start smartly). It was a great choice. First view of the river is always so breathtaking.. even in a very low water year.

We took a three-fie:

We hiked along the Lyell fork for about two miles, then cut up through a large meadow to the main trail (the John Muir Trail).

Trail’s mostly flat.. a mellow river grade.

We went another couple miles and had lunch at the 4.5 mile point. It was so, so pretty. Ate on that rock on the left.

Earlier in the year, there would have been a lot of mosquitoes. We were so late this year, we missed those (great) and most of the wildflowers (unfortunate). We did have very mild temps though — 60s-70s during the day.. (fantastic).

It was low water… so Rafferty Creek was totally dry:

This was the return view of Lyell Canyon…

We heard thunder, but saw no rain.

Got back to cabin, Peter continued on to the store to get a toothbrush and a deck of cards. When he returned, we sat at the fire pit and played another pub quiz. Showered, then dinner.

Toulumne Meadows was hosting the big contributors to the Yosemite Conservancy (we give sporadically, but not at the high roller level). They were having receptions and ate from a different menu. This night, we were lucky to get a table in the dining room (most had to find dinner in Lee Vining or at the grill down at the store), but sat by ourselves off to the side. We later learned there were some amazing stories among these Conservancy members. I’m glad there are people who give so much to Yosemite.

After dinner, Peter killed me in gin rummy. It was a remarkable run!

And to bed by 8:45!