Story is still in progress. At Yosemite now. Had been looking forward to a snow trip to Wapama/HH Dome/??. Have bomber snowshoes (MSR Lightning Ascent, broken in on Dewey Point & Tempo Dome short hikes last month - even breaking trail to Tempo). Gaiters, Katoolahs, all kinds of good stuff.
No snow, and trail closed at Wapama bridge as we know due to damage (rockfall?). Trail to Beehive now also closed due to rockfall. Also, despite the weather report of many inches of snow every day for the past/next 4 days, warm temps and rain/drizzle and only a bit of mixed snow falling. So OK, we'll do Crane looky tower and/or spurs south to views of Clark Range. Except, socked in with clouds/fog. Can't even see 50 yards.
But it's still Yosemite and happy to be here - how can any reasonable person complain? So we decided to finally walk the Old Coulterville Rd down to 140. I think we passed the "Cookie Sheet"? Saw protection in the rocks and even a rope leading all the way to the top (with no one on it).
Then we walked the other way towards El Portal. Was so close to skipping across burnt bridge, but there was so much water flowing (is that Fairy Falls?) that it would have been really slippery, and I would have gotten soaked. SO talked me out of it (despite my *strong* desire to get down to the next creek (Little Crane Creek?) and the concrete arch bridge - it was really flowing too). IMO should be treated as an unsurvivable fall with all the water rushing down the rocks. The actual crossing is not difficult, and can be quite safe in calm state of mind (meaning not so fearful that reason loses out to emotion-driven actions). But it was slippery - and really wet. So next time.
I wonder if the bridge will ever be repaired, if only for walking? There were clear signs of some form of maintenance recently. Maybe just to preserve as a fire road? But compared to the trails with thousands of users also needed maintenance, I suspect this will be low on the priority list. Honestly though, I don't understand why some places are empty while others are packed. The view of the Merced flowing down that canyon is spectacular, and there are many falls that while not the same scale of the popular ones are still really nice. And, we didn't see one person all day. Not one. Can't beat that.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2017 09:20PM by ags.
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