After a Tuolumne Grill breakfast I hit the Cathedral TH for a very short ways before breaking off for the Budd Lake trail. Found it but then stummbled upon the Climber's trail and followed that until the appropriate time to cross Budd Creek and on up to Budd Lake. From there I went over Echo Peaks to the right of the scree field. Going over Echo Peaks was far more demanding than I expected and probably not a wise choice alone but I did it. With a blazing headache I decided to pass on traversing over to the Matthess Crest saddle and just went straight down to Echo Lake and camped about 1,000' short of the Dolly Domes Canyon (Cathedral Fork Canyon?) trail.
The second day was a straight shot to Merced Lake backpacker's camp with an exquisite supper & breakfast at the HSC.
Day three was a 3,000' ascent to Bernice Lake, the prettiest part of the entire hike. Bill-e-g, thanks for telling me not to miss Bernice Lake. I honestly thought I might have the whole place to myself only to discover half a dozen tents with a party of 10 from Sierra Club who were there for 5 days and had their stuff toted in by mules. This brings to mind a question. Are community toilets legal in the backcountry? They had dug a large hole and propped a folding chair w/ toilet seat on top of it. It was also completely out in an open area facing Vogelsang Pass. I was a bit surprised by this Sierra Club group who also had 3 tents less than 100' from the lake. They also appeared to have had some sort of metal enclosure or firebox they all sat around in the evening, presumably with a fire in it although I did not venture close enought to verify that. If it was an open fire it too was illegal. Anyway, that day's 3,000' ascent wore the heck out of me. I debated taking the Emeric Creek trail to lesson some of the climb but felt good enough at the junction to stay on plan. At 4AM while up to answer a call of nature the wind flipped my tent over! Went back to bed with some rocks in the tent. Didn't get much sleep that night due to windy conditions.
Day four was down from Bernice Lake and over Vogelsang Pass. As others have attested to this was a cool and windy day (Saturday) and I never saw the sun all day where I was. The plan was to go to Evelyn Lake and eventually exit via Ireland Creek and Lyell Canyon but I decided to get away from the cold and wind and headed down Rafferty Creek. Camped the last night off Rafferty Creek trail across the meadow opposite Johnson Peak a short ways outside the no camping zone. This was the best campsite of the four nights.
I had none of the problems I ran into last year. The best news was no heel blisters, not even a hot spot this year. The right boots, liners, Kenesio tape, and foot powder works wonders. Didn't even hit a deer with my rental car!
On Monday I followed up with a couple day trips to May Lake (did not climb Mt. Hoffman) and Saddleback Lake. I hit Saddleback rather late in the day so did not go as far as I would have liked, having turned around at Helen Lake, just after Steelhead Lake. This is definitely an area I want to go back to again and cover more thoroughly and at a more leisurely pace. An interesting note: The snack bar at Saddleback has a 5/20 photo hanging on the wall showing the top 9-12" of the roof peak sticking out of the snow. Everything else was burried under the snow.
I will not kid you, doing a trip like this only once a year (I'm 65 now) is extremely demanding. About the time I got truly adapted to the altitude it was time to leave. It would also be nicer if I could find a hiking partner of similar capability but doing that from the east coast and on my schedule is a tall order. Anyway, I wouldn't trade the experince for anything and am looking forward to 2011.
Jim
