It's me again. I haven't found myself blogging whilst curled up in a sleeping bag at 10,000 feet in quite some time. Yet, here I am. And I couldn't be happier. Maddie and I are perched on a sandy plateau a stone's throw from Rafferty Creek, about 3/4 of a mile below Tuolumne Pass. No wind. Clear skies. Good company. Well, Maddie was asleep within a few moments of crawling into her bag so I'm not sure about that last tid bit. Now, let me catch you up.
This break has been a whirlwind for me, having just come from a 28-mile Yosemite loop starting at Ostrander Lake and ending at Mono Meadow, as well as a road trip with my buddy Matt and his wife Raelin up the coast to Depoe Bay Oregon. Exhausted though I am, I could not be more thrilled with how the break is flying by. Rather than squeeze in a bunch of photos of those other trips here, I'll keep this trip report on track.
With Maddie and I both returning home late last night from taxing weekends traveling, neither of us felt gung-ho enough to set out for Yosemite too early. So with our gear packed by 2:30am, we got a few hours of sleep before loading up the car at 9:30. The drive has become second nature at this point, having made the journey four times in the last month and a half. The excitement has yet to wane on highway 120, uninspiring and nausea-inducing though some may consider it. I could feel the punishing heat through my windshield on the way, bolstering my hopes of hiking under beautiful blue skies for the day.
We pulled into the Big Oak Flat entrance, hit the restrooms, and landed ourselves our first choice permit out of tuolumne meadows to explore the Clark Range. If that name sounds familiar, it may be because I blogged about my Clark Range loop last summer out of Mono Meadow across the park. Looking to change it up in favor of a more scenic entrance, we opted for tuolumne.
On our way out of the parking lot, Maddie noticed a trio of young, bedraggled hikers with their thumbs outstretched, not too dissimilar in appearance or smell from the likes of us post-JMT. In tune with the plight of the thru-hiker, we pulled over and offered them a lift up to Tuolumne. They turned out to be a squad of adventurer-seekers, roaming from national park to park in the west. Here they found themselves hiking part of the Pacific Crest Trail and needed a lift back to the trail itself. Happy to oblige, we chit chatted back and forth for the next hour or so up to the meadows.
Bidding them farewell, and scoring a bag of Soylent in the process, Maddie and I set out for our own trail head.
The initial hike followed the John Muir Trail for about 2 miles before we veered up the hillside toward Vogelsang high Sierra camp. The walk began as a trudge through dense forest, made all the more tedious by the hefty weights of our respective packs. We've come a long way in lightening our load since 2014, but there's still room for improvement no doubt.
At a certain point, approaching 9,000 feet, the grade became more gradual, and we were treated to some of the most pleasant Yosemite hiking to date. The vistas came into view, the creek rushed along beside us, and the late afternoon sun gently bathed us. Given our 3:40pm start time, we weren't aiming for huge miles, but figured we'd hike until at least 7pm, so we could take advantage of this extra long period of daylight.
It wasn't long, however, before the terrain became ever so slightly obscured by the cloud of mosquitos following our progress. I think the permethrin treatments on our clothes are still effective, but they pestered us nonetheless. I would go so far as to say that this was the most intense swarm I've experienced. I've grown fairly tolerant of the little devils, but this was beginning to irritate me a bit. So I began to look for a campsite relatively removed from water. This became harder to do as we climbed higher, where fresh snowmelt was producing patches of marsh primed for mosquito heaven.
We persevered until we found this plateau I find myself prone and sleepy as I type this. Tomorrow, we'll get a real taste of snow I'm sure as we head over Vogelsang pass and up to the base of Isberg and Post Peak passes.
With my shoulder a bit fatigued from holding up the phone, I'm heading to join Maddie in what I hope will be a very restful night's sleep.
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