Linkies to the whole enchilada:
Intro and Days 1 & 2
Days 3, 4, 5
Days 6 & 7
Days 8 & 9 and finish
Plants & animals
Overall weather was good, very hot most of the trip, cooler and some rain for a day or two in the middle. During the entire trip I did not see any bears, mountain lions, or coyotes, and only a couple of deer. Lots of marmots, squirrels, chipmunks, and ravens. And ants and flies and mosquitoes. Lots of flowers too.
For the first couple of days I was joined by Mike (Old Dood) and Chick-on. I think they felt they needed to rescue me from myself, and perhaps they were right. I know that my itinerary was greatly improved by Chick-on’s suggestions and pointing me to a couple of cool less-traveled spots, and Mike’s driving and generous hospitality was very comforting and allowed me to squeeze the most out of the time I had.
Put these two together and they are endlessly entertaining, better than the full blue-ray collection of the Odd Couple (I'll let you ponder who might be Felix and who is Oscar). I had such a great time with these guys, and I feel that I have made two new, very special friends. They must have liked me just a little as well as I earned the nickname “Billy Joel” (since Joel is my real name, and Billy, well if you know these guys then you know about Billy). As great as the totally-solo trip I had originally planned would have been, it was exponentially so much better due to the guidance, concern, and good company of these two fine gents.
Thurs 7/18
I flew into Sacramento, landed in the evening, Mike picked me up and we rode back to his place for the night.
Fri 7/19 – Day 1
Chick-On met us at Mike’s house early that morning. We grabbed breakfast on the road, picked up permits at Big Oak Flat station, and started at the Porcupine Creek trailhead around 10:30am. (Foreshadowing note: coming from basically sea level I was jumping right up above 8k elevation, which I’d never done before, my idea all along, more on that later...). It was very hot – I had found a forecast online for a Tenaya Lake weather station, seemed the closest approximation to the destinations on my itinerary, and a couple of days before the trip it showed forecast highs of 95°-98°. Not for The Valley but for Tenaya Lake. And it felt like it.
So we went to Indian Arch.
Then we bushwacked down to Basket Dome, went up and had lunch on Basket. Cool how it actually curves under on the eastern side:
Thought this was cool:
Looking up Basket:
Over on North Dome Chick-on snapped me and da Bird taking in the view:
Then we returned to the car. We then drove to the Snow Creek trailhead on Tioga Rd (old quarry), hiked to Mt Watkins, and set up camp. A big first day, close to 14 miles. I felt a little headachey, slight nausea, lost my appetite, but generally felt OK (anyone see where this is going?). I did skip my full dinner that night and just nibbled on some trail mix before bedding down. Night was so warm and gentle we just slept under the stars.
I woke around 4:20am, the moon had set by then, and I opened my eyes to a crystal clear sky full of billions of stars. I don’t get to see the Milky Way very often, this was a real middle-of-the-night treat. Finally did fall back asleep.
Sat 7/20 – Day 2
Plan for the day was to head up to May Lake and ascend Hoffmann, then toddle around Polly Dome area and a special place to camp. But...
That morning I woke up feeling OK, I ate a full breakfast and everything. Then Chick-on took me exploring while Mike headed back to the car to wait for us. We were down in the gully between Watkins proper and its northeast buttress (also called Wazoo Dome?) when I began to feel really bad. Big wave of nausea hit me and I lost my breakfast. Was sweating profusely, even at rest. Heat felt relentless, I couldn’t cool down. Arms and legs began physically shaking. Had to stop every 25 yards not just to rest but to sit down. Legs were gone. Then another big bout of breakfast refunding. So now no dinner or breakfast in my system. Oh, and did I mention we were low on water and none to be found between us and the car?
I don’t know if it was AMS, or dehydration, or heat exhaustion, or something I ate, or some bug I picked up, or some combination. Doesn’t matter, first I was fine, and then in less than an hour I was toast.
Chick-On immediately responded to the situation, shelving all plans for the day. We were near the bottom of Barf Gully, all exposed, so we climbed up the gully best I could manage in order to find a shady spot for me to stay while he went back to the car (I think about 5 mi r/t) to get Mike and water. It was way too steep there to pitch my shelter, so I just lay in the duff for about 4 hours. It wasn't particularly buggy, but if you lay in the dirt in one spot long enough then eventually every able-bodied blood-sucker within a quarter-mile will find you. So I pulled on the head net, slipped on some lightweight gloves I like to carry, and tucked my pants legs into my socks. Napped on and off, had some weird dreams. Mostly, though, I just lay there looking up at massive Cloud’s Rest directly across the canyon, a wall of granite a couple miles wide and a mile high, looming imposingly a good 1,800 feet above where I was laying – my intended destination 4 days later, thinking to myself there is no way I could do it. Feeling pretty puny.
By the time Mike and Chick-on returned I was starting to feel better, but still we planned to just go up on top of the northeast buttress of Watkins right above us and camp there for the night. Mike and I were going to head straight to the dome. He and Chick-on both insisted I leave my pack in Barf Gully and that Chick-on would retrieve it for me, which he did. Chick-on then went to explore Hidden Lake.
Mike and I started to make our way up the gully, then Mike suggested we zig-zag up the granite face of the dome rather than come all the way up through the gully, so we did – and not a minute later we heard a thunderous sound and turned our heads to watch a huge tree fall right in the middle of the gully, pretty darn close to where we would have been if we had stuck to that route. Pretty incredible to watch, but also unsettling – I really think that gully doesn’t like me.
Mike and I found a spot to camp on the dome, then a big windstorm rolled in.
Here is some video.
When it started to rain and lightning we moved off the dome into the forest for cover. Chick-on returned and found us. Eventually the sky cleared and we toddled back out to the dome to camp.
By this time I was feeling much better. Even my appetite came back – I ate my whole lunch late that afternoon and a whole dinner a couple of hours later. Wonderful sunset.
If I had been solo I'm not sure how things would have played out. I probably would have been OK eventually, but I might have tried to push myself or done something stupid. Thanks to Mike and Chick-on I had the care and attention and solid advice I needed, and I have no doubt that it made a huge difference in the outcome. Thank you both!
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2013 07:06PM by JRinGeorgia.
