oh never mind...I don't want to get into a pissing contest.by jeffrey - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
" Carry out 5 days of soiled toilet paper in a Ziploc bag." I understand your point. Still, this is a bridge too far for me. TP is..paper. Which is a wood product. It's returning to where it began. Bury your tp properly and it may well be enriching the soil. Of course, you could burn it in a small fire, if those are allowed. I do see, rarely, tp that bears have dug up floating aboby jeffrey - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Possibly as important as your bag: what sort of sleeping pad are you using? I bring a big down puffy jacket at this time of year. Makes a great pillow and you can put it on while sleeping if needed.by jeffrey - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
I've been over that pass in snow before and didn't have any problems. The landscape is 'open' and easy to traverse and switchback at the top. If there's snow!by jeffrey - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Going up from Crown Lake there's often snow coverage in early June. So that's probably true now, given the year. Specifically, there's a long, steep section of snow starting just past the trail junction to Island Pass (I hope that I'm remembering this right). I've gone up it several times; it will be sun cupped, which helps. Coming down it is a bit more exciting. But it's never been icy when I'vby jeffrey - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
wonderful pictures and trip report; thanks for letting us come along vicariously. Yeah, head nets are a pain. As you know, the wider mesh ones make visibility somewhat better. In mosquito season I wear a hat with a humongous neck drape from Sun Precautions. It's a sun hat, and the drape is so big that you can pull it all the way up over your nose if need be. In a cloud of mosquitoes, I'm compby jeffrey - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Red Peak trail: just to state the obvious...crap, that's a lot of snow!by jeffrey - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Red Peak Pass: to be honest, I always got a little giddy coming down the West-ish side in bone dry conditions when the switchbacks approach the drop off looking towards Mono Lake. Everything falls away on two sides. Of course it's perfectly safe, but part of me feels nervous. I end up laughing to relieve the tension. So it must have been something to go up it in snow. I'm not sure I would have doby jeffrey - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
I get blisters with wet feet. I've found that with gaiters--I have a super light pair of Event gaiters that go half way up to my knees--it's not that hard to keep a gore tex shoe dry even in wet Spring conditions, if you're willing to wade when a crossing or a marsh would overtop the gaiters. I have a pair of 'pool shoes' (mesh netting attached to a thin sole) that weigh two ounces for the pair.by jeffrey - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
If you get to Echo or Merced...leave a day for hiking up to (or near) Babcock Lake,if you can. It's entirely non technical in snow and the trail offers some stunning views. Sort of the capper to the trip, imo. Chick-on could tell you more.by jeffrey - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Thanks for the great pics; wonderful to be able to hike vicariously this way. I'm reading a book called The Hidden Life of Trees, which is pretty cool. Tree lovers may well enjoy this. --Jeffby jeffrey - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Believe me, I'm not a great backcountry skier. It doesn't take much of a downhill, with trees around, and uncompacted snow, or ice, or hummocks etc. to make going pretty tough. But it is great to do when the conditions are right. On relatively flat areas sometimes you can make good time with less effort, especially if you can ski back in your own tracks, or if others have made tracks. I like snowby jeffrey - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Berkeley Point tends to have clearer views than stanford pt... I believe the stanford people still think the valley was formed by prehistoric squirrels. Oh well. Any desire to use skis for the long flat sections of this trail? and maybe carry snowshoes to use for the steeps. But maybe that would be too much weight and fiddling around.by jeffrey - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra