Picking up where we left off...
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HikingMano
I did, "Thru dayhike GCT" showed up on my 'To Do' list as a result! I figured crossing Register would be dicey when the water's flowing. Didn't see many "easy" crossing spots, though I didn't look too hard when we were there. Where does one cross when the water is high?
Glad this trip didn't have many mosquitoes; they really bug me, I hate wearing a net, and prefer not to use repellants if possible. Man, I need to go back and see it as you guys saw it in '11 though, particularly to see real waterwheels.
Crossing Register: I believe I have heard of going upstream and there might be a log.. I do not know myself - I'm sure others can be more exact. The first time we did it Register was nothing to be concerned with, the second time, we were concerned, but made it. BTW, we have a lot of experience crossing high water, and I have a very high tolerance for COLD water, and we use hiking poles. In 2011, when we did it, I believe trying without hiking poles would have been deadly. Only one out of four solidly connected points moved at a time. When I lifted a leg at one point, it got swept behind me (I faced into the current to minimize getting thrown off-balance) and I had to pull it back. Without solidly planted poles, I would not have been able to keep my balance. Definitely need to stay calm and move deliberately.
We actually got lucky with the thunderstorms feeding the rivers... there was flash flooding and the washed out trails and high water everywhere and that chocolate milk Return Creek mixing with the pristine blue-white of the Tuolumne.. It was stunning, but that was sheer dumb-luck timing. We just made it through areas just before or just after things were too treacherous. Nothing stopped us on our journey, and though we were moving all day, we saw sooo very much. Our senses were heightened and the air was refreshing and well, so much of it is still so very vivid in my mind... as opposed to our first hot slog.. I can only remember vague images of brushy overgrown steamy jungle-like trail (Pate Valley hadn't been cleared recently), and lots of mosquitoes. I've had the speed/stop-and-smell-the-roses talk with a variety of ultra runners... and I've learned that they are very aware and tuned in... and see a lot. They absorb a lot of details even though they are traveling faster. During our hike through the canyon in a day, we weren't really hiking faster than normal, just steady, but we were so enchanted and aware... I think that's what matters most.. how "present" you are, how connected you are to where you are as you move through it... not necessarily the speed...
Headnet: do you wear a no-see-um tight weave headnet or a mosquito headnet? What color? Once I moved to the Sea-to-Summit Insect Shield head nets, I haven't been nearly as annoyed. They have larger holes, and use black mesh. My visibility is impacted, but slightly, air flow is still quite good, unlike the stuffiness inside a no-see-um net. Can't help you if you are already there and still hate it.. if someone has a better suggestion, please pipe up!
Seeing waterwheels... we have been getting pretty addicted to early season (and I mean first or second weekend Tioga Road opens) jaunts from TM down to Waterwheel Falls, either as an overnight or as a dayhike. Getting out there as soon as we can seems to have netted us the biggest wheels along Le Conte and Waterwheel itself... HUGE. Unless it's an EVEN drier year, it'll mean Glen Aulin's north end will be flooded by the Mattie Lake outlet. I've seen people try to avoid the water. I embrace it and walk through it. The trail in water is IMHO a heck of a lot safer than dancing around on the patchwork of logs, and a heck of a lot faster.
