JKW and the Pink One had spent Friday checking out "trails" in the Crane Flat area. I met them near Camp 4 on Saturday, ready to attack the Yosemite Falls switchbacks and check off another "Trail Quest" segment for JKW.
The day was overcast but not too cold--perfect, in fact, for a 3700' climb. The previous week's snows had melted quite a bit, but the views were still worthwhile.
We stopped for lunch just past where the lower gate had been (only later did we realize this gate, as well as the upper one, had been removed recently), watching ice fall from the face of the falls as the sun warmed the surrounding rock.
After a nice lunch of leftover sandwich and pizza, we resumed our climb. Our expert trail guide had mentioned that in a bit the rip-rap would end--sometime before the large switchbacks. Still well in rip-rap-land, we stopped to enjoy a rainbow and the snow cone below the falls.
Of course, the rip-rap didn't really end until the switchbacks did, but the climb was still nice.
There had been only a few icy patches until we reached the junction at the top of the switchbacks; from there, we were in 100% snow coverage.
We put on our micro-spikes, but didn't need our new-ish, unused 3 year old snowshoes (never used since the drought began) due to others having broken trail all the way towards Eagle Peak. As a bonus, whoever had broken trail stayed true to the course--the Trail Quest judges were impressed and could find no reason to disqualify the Yosemite Creek - Eagle Peak segment from the official "completed" list.
For the first time in way too long, there was almost a foot of snow on the ground. Despite the wonderful hiking season we managed to have due to the almost complete lack of snow, it's nice that winter seems to have finally returned to the Sierra.
We stopped for the night a few hundred feet short of the top of Eagle Peak, just as the sun was setting for the day. We had no complaints at all about the views.
Since we were so close to the official beginning of winter, we were in the tent by 5:00pm, but it took awhile to melt snow for water and prepare dinner. Still, I think we were asleep by the late hour of 8:00 or so...
The next morning started off a bit hazy but the haze slowly cleared as we enjoyed pancakes and bacon as the tent warmed. Before packing and heading back down, we would first head off to Eagle Peak--and try out our new snowshoes.
The new shoes were immediately an improvement over our other lighter, but less technical, shoes on the uneven terrain near our camp.
We didn't need the snowshoes up to Eagle Peak due to the work of others (thanks!), and soon we were at the summit.
We of course had to take a few obligatory pictures from the top of the various birds who had managed to survive Thanksgiving.
On the way back, we had no obligation under the Terms and Conditions of the Trail Quest to stay on the official trail, so after returning to our camp and packing up, we got a chance to test our snow shoes off-piste.
This return route was of course not as fast or direct, but it was fun plunging and plowing through the snow.
Eventually we had to return to the trail, but only after a steep drop of a few hundred feet that tested the grip of the new snowshoes. They passed with flying colors, despite a few doubts we had.
Once out of the snow the trail was in fact more treacherous due to ice and slippery rip-rap. Unlike most of the day hikers heading down (or up, even with only an hour or so of light left...), we had our micro-spikes to help.
Despite the relatively small number of miles, we didn't reach the trailhead until near dark. No sense wasting any wonderful daylight driving!
More Pictures
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2015 07:25AM by basilbop.
