Hi there,
Am hoping for some advice - I did a lot of hiking in Yosemite as a child and teenager but wasn't responsible for logistics and didn't do any overnight hikes (rest of the family weren't keen!). I currently live in Australia and am bringing my partner and his 7 year old daughter to visit Yosemite for the first time. She is an active kid and pretty fit.
We have the opportunity to stay at May Lake and Glen Aulin High Sierra Camps, which I think would be a great adventure for her. I have done a lot of hiking and backpacking and am aware of navigation, need for emergency food/shelter etc and am not too worried about that side of things. I've had a look at the maps and the contours for doing Tioga Rd to May Lake one day, then May Lake to Glen Aulin the next, then Glen Aulin back to Tuolumne Meadows look manageable with a child that age. However, I haven't walked the route myself in it's entirety and so would love reassurance from those who are more familiar with the hike that it is not vastly overambitious. We would obviously carry most things for her. We are looking at mid July for the hike.
I was also wondering what people recommended in terms of parking and bear boxes. As we are on a longer holiday there will be stuff like toiletries that we will need to stash. Would it make more sense to leave the car at TM and stuff in a bear box there and catch the shuttle down, or to drive to the May Lake trailhead and leave the car there? Are there bear boxes at both the ML trailhead and the drop off point on the Tioga Road?
Would also love a rough estimate on the timing for the hike up to ML as we will be entering the park that day. Not ideal in terms of altitude but it's only a couple miles up to the camp so think we will be fine. Also whether there is enough water en route to make it worth packing purification stuff or better just to carry what we need each day?
Apologies for the questions and thank you in advance. In the Lakes in the UK and parts of Aus am all over this stuff but some of the logistics with bear boxes and shuttles is a bit beyond me! We have also done multi day backpacking carrying the tent and stoves etc. in a few places but thought the HSCs would be a great intro for the little one - we are just not massively familiar with the TM area!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2013 06:50AM by Chlo83.