I would like to add my kudos to the two of you! Over the years I have had artistic friends and they have tried to share and teach me...and well... very impressed with both of you! Thank you for sharing and may you enjoy winter in as many ways as possible!by JustKeepWalking - General Discussion
Used MSR EVOs before Used Northern Lites Elites many years. Chick-on praised Lightning Ascents and I agree they are superior for Yosemite trails. Sierra period. 360 perimeter frame teeth are awesome. As nwhkr points out heel crampon useful! Love them! And don't forget a set of Kahtoola Microspikes! Costco (our local one, anyway) has a set of traction devices by SnowTrax (by yaktby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Well, never *done* with Yosemite.. So much still to see/revisit! But fun to try to spend more time getting to know another beloved area!by JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Quoteeeek QuoteJustKeepWalkingLoop of Deat That sounds pleasant. Sigh... phone not easiest for posts...gonna fix... Couldn't find. Sigh.. tired, but good tired... Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!by JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Actually, the map I use has been modified by chickon and isn't just the trails on the current map. There are additions from past maps and some extra goodies for my Trail Quest. (Not TQX). Chickon, mrcondron and I are hoping to complete the Wawona Meadow Loop of Death together, thus finishing TQ. Years before we had heard of TQ, basilbop managed to hike the Loop of Death on a dark and stormby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Quotebuster Congrats on finishing the Trail Quest! Now I have to get off of my butt and finish mine. Good to have some encouragement from others. Thank you and here is me wishing you luck in finishing!!! I found I really enjoyed marking off the trails on my PDF map! Would love to follow your progress!by JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
This is a bit belated... been running around preparing for Thanksgiving, visiting family started arriving yesterday.. all kinds of busy... so that we can all head back for our annual Yosemite Thanksgiving. It's Basilbop's and my only tradition over the course of 28+ years. So, just haven't had a lot of time to sit and write.... But I do now... and I'm afraid I'm tongue-tied. Been working wiby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Soon as I get home after this weekend's trip, I'll post pics. Sorry no free time!by JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
I had the original NeoAir. Was cold. When the Xtherm was released, I pounced on it. Had been considering getting a heavier Exped down mat or Stephenson's DAM. The XTherm was so warm and so easy to pack and live with, I stopped looking! I'm a side sleeper with back and knee issues. I do NOT inflate the XTherm anywhere close to its max. I let the MicroBurst pump fill it up, and that's it. Itby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
I called at 10 am and all roads in park are now open without restrictions, except for the Mariposa Grove Road which is closed for renovations. Yippee!by JustKeepWalking - Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion
Oh deer.. Just had a blast reading this one... had me laughing.. reliving what a great trip it had been... smoke and all! Chick-on and I had left earlier to tackle more trail (I am hoping to be done this year, or soon next!)... so we *did* do the 1.7 mile long (one-way) connector from Deer Camp to Alder Creek. The sign says it is 1.0 mile long! Right. Luckily, we had checked a variety of sourcby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
It's been a while since I've spent some time here commenting on the various threads.. miss it... but have been busy doing what I love.. hiking! Anyway, this was a great trip.. we started just after the rains from two weekends ago now... and were a bit worried about making it to the trailhead, since it was on a Forest Service dirt road... but we made it without difficulty! YAY!! Can't tellby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Quotechick-on Now... if you want fun... Yah... have gone through a few weekends where the "trails" were bad... but in this particular photo.. no trail anywhere nearby.. and by the time I was surrounded by manzanita... all I could do was laugh! I'd given up on being annoyed... If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right? Really... I'm not happy about all the scratches and punctures...by JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Quotettilley QuoteChick-On Loads o Dead Trees (maybe will post comparison pix) Hmm...one thing I forgot to mention in my post from last weekend... From time to time I was awoken by the sound of something crashing. Sunday morning, it was clear the sounds had come from two sources: 1) large pine cones dropping as one may expect this time of year, and 2) larger branches dropping from stressedby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
We were in the park sat/sun. Wawona area mostly, but drove home via the Valley Sunday evening. So glad we did! We saw that the South Fork Merced was raging in Wawona, so I was hopeful... and the Valley and Merced did not disappoint! We had hiked through several downpours all day Sunday, and the drive to the Valley had a few more... but we got lucky in the valley and we're running about taby JustKeepWalking - Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion
Thanks for the report and pics! We didn't go deep into the Valley, just enough to get to and from 41/ GP road from 120... Could not believe the cars parked at Sentinel/Taft lot-along the road- like summer!!! Sheesh! And we saw the trucks you mentioned. On Sunday evening, driving back into the park to get Basilbop, we saw the sign "Valley Parking Full" outside the BOF entraby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Quotelschaaf I, for one, really enjoy Basilbops trip reports. I may not get to do much hiking, but I can escape to Yosemite backcountry in one of Basilbop's excellent trip report and their beautiful photos. Thank you for saying so! He puts in a lot of time curating the photos, uploading and writing the report and linking the pics and all. I, for one, truly appreciate it! I love revisitingby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Um.... just realized... You didn't mention all the spiders.... I mean, I realize they we're all tormenting me... but... At least the one in the tent the last morning?? *shudder*by JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Thank you!!! It was really interesting to see the gradual changes over the course of the trips. Nice to see it all at once! Really drives home how much it changed.by JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Quoteags Quotemarkskor Tests have shown a Yosemite bear can find an unopened can of tuna, one foot underwater. The wilderness permit rules say: unless there are bear boxes provided at your destination camp, (IE - LYV), you must carry a bear can if staying overnight. ...and up-front I made clear I realize I'm not an expert, and I don't think that the Rangers would agree even if I were miraculby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Quotechick-on Where do you live? You can borrow my Bare Boxer. If it makes you feel better. (it won't) JKW and I took a 16" can and a 10 1/2" can on Sunday/Monday TQ trip. Overkill? Uh... a tad... and we didn't even have a bag o chips! PM Chick-on... we also have a BareBoxer Contender and live in a different area, if more convenient to you. Frankly, I'm used to carryinby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Quotebasilbop I don't know if this phrase is in the current Schaffer edition, but "the Forsyth trail, not worth taking" came up recently. Google only found the reference in the old edition, but it's in the 5th edition twice: page 222 and 231. Quotebasilbop Another favorite was something along the lines of: "as always, the panting Sierra hiker is rewarded with ever-improving vby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Thank you, Basilbop, for enabling me to spend an utterly fabulous August (and early September) out there! I was so glad you could join us on the last trip and on the various other trips before! Thank you, Chick-on, for putting up with me and showing me all kinds of neat stuff! I wish I had the time to write up a trip report of our big trip.. but... it'll have to wait a little longer, lotsby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Quoteags Wow. Great pictures and report. I've done a loop starting/ending at Quartz Mountain, over Merced/Red/Post Peaks etc. I've also walked from Happy Isles to Merced Lake then up to Vogelsang/Sunrise/Cathedral/Tuolumne. Your report (did I mention the spectacular pictures?) has prompted me to begin planning a hike next year (is it too late this year...?) from Quartz to Happy Isles. The canyonby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
What a wonderful trip that was!!! Love the area, always nice to go back and visit. But thoroughly annoyed with the trail abuse by horses. We saw so much new damage on the Rafferty trail... sigh..by JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Quotettilley QuoteChick-On w/r to LNT ... some bozo put up a stack o rocks IN Fletcher o... also boated Babcock (sorry blops) (ok, not sorry) At Badger (Ansel Adams) someone had constructed a giant stack of rocks marking an illegal campsite (way too close to water, giant obelisk is gone now). Thank you for taking down the stack of rocks! It's soooooo frustrating to see these piles of rocksby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
QuoteThe Other Tom Very nice. One of my favorite areas. 3 lbs of tp removed ? Wow, that's a lot of tp. Grrr. After all the hiking just in August.. we saw TP in too many places. Often closer to trailheads.. which isn't surprising, I guess. But definitely infuriating! How hard is it to carry a little ziploc bag and pack it out? Sheesh.by JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
To be fair, for Wapama, we saw "water" dripping over rock above us while on bridges, but dry dry dry at bridges. Just soaked in/evaporated by that point. Tiltil had water flowing. Same with Rancheria, obviously.by JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
Take a headnet. Black flies (aka "face" flies) were an issue in many areas in the lower elevation zones through last weekend. Better sane than crazy, imo.by JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra
I recall using my Jacks R Better High Sierra Sniveler down to below 20 degrees in a bivy sack, I think the thermometer read 16 degrees. Several nights over different trips. I wore my Western Mountaineering Flight jacket to bed too! I think I had my Flash pants then, but may have just had fleece pants then. I have had ice on my bag/bivy sack many many times. Rarely carry a thermometer. This wby JustKeepWalking - Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra