:: Grand Cayon of the Tuolumne (in YNP) Trip - May 25 - 27, 2007 ::

:: Saturday May 26, 2007 @ 4:30 AM::

Timber and I got onto the road and sped off toward Yosemite National Park at 4:30 in the morning. On our way out of town we dropped Wookie off at Timber's Parents' house and then waved goodbye to her parents and Wookie as we started our long weekend backpacking adventure. We missed most of the traffic and made it to the trailhead in Tuolumne Meadows by 8:30 AM.

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Jay and Forrest went to get the permits while the rest of us spent some time getting our gear and the food together. After they got back we did introductions with everyone in our group (there were 17 of us). Once everyone was set with their gear, food, bear canisters (required for this trip), and other fun stuff, we headed out on the trail. We found out that our permit only allowed us to camp at the Glen Aulin High Sierra camp the first night which significantly decreased our first day hike from roughly 11 miles to 5.6 miles. The easier first day hike made for a brutal second day hike of roughly 14.5 miles. Brutal being the nominal term...

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We made it to the Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp at 2:30 PM and proceeded to set up camp, get our clotheslines out to hang up our clothes that got sweaty from the hike, and have a nap before having dinner. The 5.6 mile hike from Tuolumne Meadows to Glen Aulin were scenic with several nice waterfalls and quite pleasant due to the relatively short distance and fairly easy trail. After napping for a little while and getting everything ready we cooked dinner and hung out with our fellow hikers (remember that group of 17?) before turning in for the night around 10 PM.

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We woke up at 7 AM, made breakfast, and packed up camp and then got started on the long, 14.5 mile second day of hiking.

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We made it to Rest Creek at 12:30 PM after some tough hiking. We were definitely not making our target speed of 2 MPH on the trail. I'm guessing that we were going somewhere between 1.0 and 1.5 MPH which ended up making our hike last quite a bit longer. It was starting to suck...

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What a brutal, frustrating, and sometimes painful on my right knee hike. It took us 12 hours to go 14.5 miles. The downhill parts killed my right knee and the uphill parts were better but just as slow. It was a lot of up and down going over difficult trail due to all the rocks with sharp edges sticking up. We saw one rattlesnake and lots of bear scat on the trail as well. At one point we followed the trail until it disappeared into the water and then stopped just wondering what the hell just happened to the trail. Was the trail made by Aquaman or something? We backtracked a little bit and found a cairn going up over a boulder field. We cautiously walked up hill to the top of the boulders and then looked for a way over or around them so that we could get back on the trail and back on our way. We were going slow enough as it was and didn't need anything else to slow us down even further. Sigh... Most of the paths we found were too difficult to do with a pack on but we eventually found one path from boulder to boulder that we could just barely do by taking off our packs, having me go to the next boulder, and then have Timber hand me the packs, and then I help her down. We had to do this several times before we were done with the boulders. The two biggest problems were that some of the boulders would move so we had to be really careful (think Aron Ralston) and Timber's legs were really tired. They were so tired that I could see her legs shaking. Luckily we got to this part before it got dark. If it were dark by the time we got to the boulders we may have had to camp right there or turn back. After going down the trail a bit more after the boulders we went through lots of woods and brush with no sign of camp to be found. There were no mile markers along the way and the day and hike just seemed to drag on forever. Around 8:45 PM we put on our headlamps and kept trudging on. The good news was that we had everything we needed, tent, sleeping pads, sleeping bags, food, water, etc... so we didn't have to worry about having to hike all night or getting lost or not finding our group. We would have stopped and camped on our own if we had to, and that was a comforting thought. We were definitely prepared and weren't going to be rattled by having a long brutal hike and having to finish it in the dark. By 9:15 PM we came around a corner and found our group, we were the last ones to make it to camp. Neither Timber nor I really felt like eating anything. We just wanted to pitch our tent, get ready for bed, and go to sleep.

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Timber and I got up at 5 AM so that we could get at least an hour head start on the rest of the group since we were quite a bit behind them getting into camp the previous day. We got everything packed up and on the trail by 6:30 AM and started our hike through the forest. We crossed a bridge that spanned the Tuolumne River and then we started our long trip up and out of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne.

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By 10:30 AM a few smaller groups in our larger group of 17 passed us on the trail as we worked up the switchbacks on our way out of the Canyon. We stopped at a creek with Forrest, Chaing, and Svetlana to get some water and take a quick break. After we headed out from the creek they sped ahead and we were not going to see them until we reached the end of the trail.

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By 4:30 PM we made it to White Wolf Campground. The 10.5 mile, 4000 foot elevation gain last day of hiking was finally over. It capped off a 33 mile, 3 day backpacking trip that was at times tough and slow. The last two miles on fire road through the forest seemed to stretch on forever. By the time we got to the trailhead everyone in our group but the two brothers from Guam had passed us. Jay and his group had been the first to the trailhead and went took a car back to Tuolumne Meadows to get our cars and bring them back to White Wolf in order to save time for the group. Timber and I were glad to be done with the hike and swapped stories with the rest of our group that was still at the trailhead. After the Guam brothers showed up we talked for a little while longer before heading our seperate ways. Timber and I went to Oakdale and had dinner at Mountain Mike's with Forrest, Svetlana, and Chiang. Then we seperated and each worked our own way back to the Bay Area and to our homes with warm, comnfortable beds. At last, the journey was over.

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I learned a few things on this backpacking trip. The first is that a 33 mile backpacking trip over 3 days in the Sierras is probably going to be pretty tough. It is probably managable if you can do an even 11 miles each day, but if you have to do different distances each day, especially 14.5 miles on the second day things are going to get ugly. Second, Timber and I can be pretty slow sometimes, so we should get a head start on the rest of our group when we all go backpacking together. Overall this was a pretty tough trip that I probably won't do again any time soon. When I go backpacking again in the future I'll make sure to keep the mileage nice and easy. Crazy day hikes can be cool at times but getting crazy over 3 days of backpacking can hurt the knees. I think I could also stand to lose a few pounds which would make me a little faster on the trail and not hurt my right knee as much on the downhill parts. I'll backpack again soon, just not this trail. :-)

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