Danielle’s spring break was rapidly approaching, and we hadn’t planned anything to do yet. After spending some time on Rip Off America we ended up with reservations for 4 nights of camping in and around Yosemite National Park. Monday, April 2nd was our departure date. Despite very little slacking off, it took us all morning to get ready to leave. A lot of our time was spent planning and buying food for the week. Since our last trip, we’ve changed our diets to include more fruit and vegetables with less starch, so we couldn’t fall back on random cans of stuff over couscous. Instead we ended up packing lots of fruit, vegetables, and meat that we cooked (for lunches).
Around 12:30pm, we finally hit the road. We stopped by Trader Joe’s to get some lunch food as well as several Tasty Bites to serve as flavor for otherwise pretty basic dinners. In the checkout line I grabbed a chunk of the plastic-wrapped chocolate they keep there. That turned out to be a good move. It was good chocolate for not a lot of money, and it served as a tasty treat throughout the trip. After this delay we drove straight to Dry Gulch Campground which is just west of Yosemite. The drive was pretty boring, and didn’t get fun until we were well on our way on 41 where the scenery got steadily prettier. There were flowers, green rolling hills, mountains, forests, etc. Winding our way over to 140 we even saw several deer on the side of the road.
We decided to head back to our campground to just sit around and relax for a while until dinner time. I don’t sit around and relax very well, so instead I studied the map. We’d decided to do a day-hike on Thursday, and I found just the one. We’d leave from our campsite, walk past Mirror Lake, up on Snow Creek Trail, bypass North Dome, head to Yosemite Point, then to Yosemite Falls, and finally back down to the valley. This route is over 14 miles, but we figured we could take it slow (2mph) and still make it, as long as we left early enough. To be extra sure, we hurried back to the visitor center where we got in the door just before closing. The ranger told us that, according to their reports, there were some snow drifts up there but nothing requiring snow shoes. We returned back to our tent, ate dinner, and got into bed nice and early in anticipation of a nice long hike.
Once we conquered the switchbacks, I figured the major climbing was over and we were basically home free. I misread the map, and thought we had about 550 vertical feet to go, but much less steep. Looking at it now, it is clear that we had 1100 vertical feet to go. Even though it had taken longer than expected to get this far, we pressed on, optimistic that soon we’d be on easy streets. A slight damper was put on our optimism when we met a guy who had camped out the previous night. He said they walked through deep and soft snow, post-holing all the way. I asked for how long that section lasted, and he said one to two miles. We decided to hike on a bit to see how bad the snow was. When we saw the snow, it seemed frozen enough that we could walk on top of it relatively easily. How bad could 2 miles of fairly frozen snow be? We continued on.
Soon thereafter we hit a relative flat section of the trail. We took a brief break to admire a small mountain kingsnake that was crossing the trail. By this time it was so dark that it took a little while to see that the red was next to black, and not to yellow. Just a little further down we passed the other couple, who had gone off the trail where they thought it took a switchback. A minute later they passed us again while I was checking the map. The trail was switchbacking up, and I wanted to make sure there wasn’t some other trail that we may have gotten lost on. By this time, it was too dark to read the map. We pressed on.
Again we passed the other couple, as they’d gotten off the trail. And again they passed us right back. The trail had changed from rocky to mostly sandy, which was making our descent much easier, when it changed to switchbacks again. With the switchbacks came more rocks, and the steps down were hard to see. I began calling out to Danielle, who was much more tired than me, what was coming. “Sand… just a few rocks… big step down… sand… big rock… step down…” As we got lower, there were more trees blocking out the light. At this point I was getting more than half of my trail information from my feet, instead of being able to see what was coming. Just as the trees got so dense we could barely see any trail at all, we heard some shouting from down below, and saw lights.
Thank you, Dani and Costa, for coming back for us, and slowing down so we could keep up as we walked down. Without your help, it would have taken hours longer, and been a lot more miserable to come down. I apologize for the awful picture of Costa, but it’s the only one I have.
From the parking lot we walked to the nearby Yosemite Lodge. There, Dani and Costa continued to the shuttle because they were driving home that night. Danielle and I walked to the front desk, to ask what our dinner options were. We were told that the restaurant was seating people for 5 more minutes so we hurried over there. In our hiking clothes, boots still wet, carrying packs, we entered the Mountain Room Restaurant and were seated immediately. Instead of 7 or 8 hours it had taken us 12 hours and 20 minutes to cover just under 15 miles. You can see our route here. Needless to say we wolfed down our excellent dinner, which was served to us by a very friendly wait staff. After dinner we took the shuttle bus back to our tent, where we finally got to take off our boots. Our feet were wrinkled from being wet so long, but amazingly neither of us had any blisters. We went straight to bed and slept very well.
In the morning Danielle was unbelievably sore, while I was feeling remarkably good. We packed up because our reservation was over, and headed to the visitor center to see what we might do that day. It took Danielle a while to complete the 0.4 mile walk from the parking lot to the visitor center, and she even had to take a break. We decided right there that we would go home a day early, since she was clearly in no shape to do anything. At the visitor center we watched the movie, and checked what roads were open. We decided to take 41 south, and drive home from there.
Lessons Learned
On the positive, Trade Joe’s chocolate is great. When planning several days of meals, there’s nothing wrong with repeating a lot. We ate the same thing several times and it never crossed my mind that it was boring.
Our hike very nearly ended in a disaster. We were very lucky that some light showed up exactly when we needed it. When we were half-way to darkness, and less than half-way to the end of the trail, we should have turned around. I need to be more strict about deciding what the turn-around time is, and to make a good decision when we arrive at that time. In addition, I’m also going to put together a small survival kit that I’ll take along on every hike. If I don’t feel I can carry the extra pound, then I shouldn’t be going hiking.