Re: Crocker Point

Just camped at Crocker Point this last Saturday night (11 of us total). I can't begin to describe the beauty of this place. Sitting in our snow kitchen looking out over the valley is surely something I'll remember for a long time to come. What a spot. Late afternoon cloud shadows moving across El Capitan and Cathedral Rocks, shooting stars, the errie sounds of snow and ice falling from the sheer ledges throughout the night and the low roar of Bridalveil Fall below us. Even a Hemingway or Shakespeare would have a hard time describing this I think.

Anyway, I imagine the snow keeps most people out (didn't see any tracks), though there were quite a few snowshoe/skiing daytrippers going out to Dewey Point. Does anyone know if this place remains somewhat isolated during the warmer months. I'd love to go back with people who won't do snow.

Picts?

Here's one from one time I've been there to wet others appetites:



(please let me know if it doesn't show)..

As far as how secluded... I can only venture a guess and say it's less than
5 miles from the TH so your chances MAY not be very good...
Although the couple times that I have been by there I didn't see anyone.
And also remember that people normally want to stay near water and
seem to not want to carry their water to their destination.
And the vast majority want to start at TM. (just look at the fully reserved TH report...)

I like to do this hike very early or very late in the year....

btw... did you buy a new tent for snow or????

Since it was already close to the end of the winter season, and the SL1 tent I have, held up fine during the non-stop snow and wind at Lassen, and the 40-50 mph winds at Carson Pass (though admittedly, I did have it inside our half-built igloo), I held off getting one just yet. I was looking at Eureka like you suggested, as well as a couple of REI tents (Hilleburgs way too expensive). However; considering my desire to do Whitney, it might move closer to the top of my list of things to do.

Anyway, I have some pictures of the tent in my Crocker Point album on Picasa, a photo web site, www.picasaweb.google.com/rolandruby/CrockerPoint. It only got a few degrees below freezing overnight, and no wind, so it held up fine for this trip.

Yeah without easy access to water Crocker Point might be secluded enough to check out in warmer weather with those who aren't avid backpackers.

If you're planning an overnight stay on Mount Whitney, I hope you have your permits already. They are almost impossible to get.

I was pleased to see the metal sign made by former NPS welder William T. Kirk (1904-2003), the older brother of my former partner, Jack Kirk (1906-2007). The stories those two men could tell about Yosemite...

Dearborn wrote:

> I was pleased to see the metal sign made by former NPS welder
> William T. Kirk (1904-2003), the older brother of my former
> partner, Jack Kirk (1906-2007). The stories those two men
> could tell about Yosemite...

Do you have any info on how those signs are/were made? They are really classy (durable,provide the info in a subtle way). I used to think they were cut with a torch, but as I look at the sign, it looks more like it is punched out.
Thanks.

---

The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Frank,

Bill Kirk's signs were made with a cutting torch, with letters/numbers first written with chalk. Bill made a sign for the home of my late parents in 1969, and I saw the steel plate before he used his torch.

Bill's younger brother Jack also told me that Bill made use of steel from the bridge that used to exist at the Bridalveil Moraine located just east of Bridalveil Falls. I have walked that moraine a number of times, and the old roadway is still discernible.

In another matter, Bill's younger brother Jack participated in the Dipsea Race in Mill Valley for many years, and was known as the, "Dipsea Demon." Jack used to keep in shape by either running to Fern Springs or up the Yosemite Falls trail to Columbia Point every day before work.

Jack also lived on Mariposa Creek, downstream of Mariposa, and scrounged the doors from the Sentinel Hotel in the late 30's when it was dismantled.

Enjoy Yosemite!

Dearborn wrote:

> Frank,
>
> I have walked
> that moraine a number of times, and the old roadway is still
> discernible.
>
> > Enjoy Yosemite!
Thanks for the history. I found this old pic of the Bridalveil Moraine:

---

The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Interesting historic map found while trying to locate Crocer Point and the fissures (another thread)

Key to numbers is at:

http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/maps/outline_map_of_yosemite_valley_1914.html

---

The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Yeah Vince,

I already have a Mountaineer's Trail permit for Jun 20, but I also have a lottery request in for May 30 on the main trail. According to people at the Whitney Portal web site, that time of year is so easy to get that I probably wasted my money reserving it. Apparently Jul 4 to Sept. on weekends are hard to get.

One question on Crocker Point for Bill. The mileage according to the NPS signs is 3 miles on the more difficult route from glacier point road to dewey point, and than .6 miles to crocker point. I suspect about 3/4 mile from badger to the dewey point trailhead. Total about 4.35 miles. But the track on my gps shows only 2.77 miles. I started it at the badger parking lot. Do you know if the track distance is the straightline distance from beg. to end, or the distance it thinks you traveled?

I read somewhere that the signs used to be all wooden but they
replaced them due to the fact that people would steal them or
cut them down and use them as firewood.
Definitely cut with a torch:

---

Everything I know I learned from

bill-e-g wrote:

> I read somewhere that the signs used to be all wooden but they
> replaced them due to the fact that people would steal them or
> cut them down and use them as firewood.
> Definitely cut with a torch:
>
>

I agree your example looks like a torch and most of the backcountry ones I've seen appear that way. The Crocker Point sign is different however. Looks like a "stencil" was used.

---

The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

It's probably somewhere here:
http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/

The guy has done a masterful job putting the site together.
The forums there don't get the traffic this one does .. but some
schmo over there in the Backpacking Forum really knows what he is
talking about.

Learn something new everyday. Snow trail was named after
Albert Snow
As I like to tell the wife.. I'm really good at finding stuff to waste
huge quantities of time on.. (ok, I tell my boss that too... )

The first known trail builder in the Yosemite Valley was Albert Snow, who built the horse trail zigzags up to Clark Point and thence down to the Silver Apron in 1870.

from
Pathways: A Story of Trails and Men (1968), by John W. Bingaman


ok... dang! I can't blame Bee for the digression...!

Same sign... Different Day... (def. torch job)



However, I'm fairly certain that they have replaced some signs due
to theft or disrepair. Those signs look the same but may be punched.
They have not replaced the Red Peak Pass sign tho... the post isn't
even up there anymore.

Bill-e-g: ok... dang! I can't blame Bee for the digression...!

I'm innocent! (for once)

none of the pix are showing except the very first sign.....

(signs, signs, everywhere signs...)

B

dearborn: >In another matter, Bill's younger brother Jack participated in the Dipsea Race in Mill Valley for many years<

Wow -- you have a little something for all of us! I mentioned on another thread that I did the Dipsea Double. I have run the Dipsea many years; my hats off to jack! (and to you as unoffial historian

B

Bee wrote:

> dearborn: >In another matter, Bill's younger brother Jack
> participated in the Dipsea Race in Mill Valley for many years<
>
> Wow -- you have a little something for all of us! I mentioned
> on another thread that I did the Dipsea Double. I have run the
> Dipsea many years; my hats off to jack! (and to you as unoffial
> historian

I heard that Jack Kirk was truly a curmudgeon. Apparently he didn't stop running the Dipsea Double until he finally couldn't do it any more at the age of 96. Apparently the strangest part was that as a Seventh Day Adventist, he would never leave home until nightfall on the Sabbath - and he might barely make it in time in some rustbucket that he barely kept running.

JACK KIRK: 1906-2007
The 'Dipsea Demon' was a renowned runner, curmudgeon
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/01/BAGB8NSRSD1.DTL

Great word: Curmudgeon!

Still running the Dipsea at 96? Good gawd...I can't imagine running it year to year until registration comes up...Its the bay area version of half dome in a day..

B

I'm not really certain if the term, "curmudgeon" could apply to Jack. He could be colorful, but he had an exceptionally clean vocabulary. He was not the least bit bashful, but he was polite.

I worked with Jack on the Yosemite campground maintenance crew in the summer of 1969. I was 20, he was 63 and we got along great. One of his favorite memorable remarks would occur when we would be digging a new pit toilet along the Tioga Road, "Well, I think we just found the other half of Half Dome!"

I used to visit his Mariposa Creek home over the years, and I introduced my son and daughter to him when they were young. I believe the last time I saw him was in the late 80's or early 90's. If I'm not mistaken, he grafted branches from the Curry parking lot apple trees in his remarkable garden.

Jack certainly enlivened my Yosemite experience!