We slept well. Before our trip, I worried I would fret over potential nightly bear visits and therefore rarely sleep a wink. I had envisioned difficult hours of auditory paranoia -- every sound would be something large and hairy trying to break into our tent.
Thankfully, I experienced absolutely no unnecessary mental anguish. The sight of that bear submissively turning and walking away at the sound of my yell had dispelled all my worries. I slept soundly that night, knowing that if a bear did indeed try to come into our tent, a shout and a blow of my air horn would scare it away.
I woke at dawn (around 6am). I roused the girls, and we proceeded to break camp. This took much longer than expected. We put our hiking clothes back on, loaded our backpacks, took down the tent, brushed our teeth, tied our camping shoes (Crocs) to our packs, and ate breakfast. The entire process took two and a half hours. We'd eventually get this routine down to one hour and forty-five minutes.
Our hiking clothes were still damp from the washing I'd given them. Ack. Lesson learned -- from this day forward, I never washed our hiking clothes (except our underwear, which almost always completely dried overnight). Wearing dry but stinky clothes is far better than putting on ice-cold, wet clothes first thing in the morning.
By 8:30, we were ready to roll. We walked out of the campground (leaving the Dartmouth fellows still sleeping in their tents...we wouldn't see them again until Muir Trail Ranch, eleven days later).
After 1.3 miles, we reached the intersection with the trail that leads to Half Dome. Alex, Sage, and I looked at one another with huge smiles on our faces. From this point on, we'd really be on the JMT. Yes, we'd technically been on the JMT all morning, but now, we'd likely meet only other JMT thru-hikers. At least, that's what we thought at the time. This turned out not to be all that true, since we were heading toward Tuolumne Meadows. Tons of people dayhike and do two or three day backpacks from Tuolumne, and we would end up meeting quite a few such folks. Not that there's anything wrong with dayhikers and three-day backpackers. Usually, those people are us. Meeting fellow thru-hikers, however, is something special. You know you'll likely see them again, and a camaraderie often develops. That's what we were looking forward to..and we'd eventually get it.
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| Heading away from Half Dome, toward Sunrise High Sierra Camp and Cathedral Lakes |
We left the Yosemite/Half-Dome crowds behind and continued along the trail.
The tree in the center of the photo below was stripped of most its bark. The bark was at the base...massive chunks!
There are plenty of intersections between Half Dome and Sunrise High Sierra Camp, but each intersection is well-marked.
Onward...
The open woods were gorgeous. Walking through the tall, stately pines felt liberating.
The climb to Sunrise High Sierra camp was surprisingly tough for us. The path was rarely steep, but we were hiking at 9500+ feet and we weren't yet acclimated to the altitude. We felt good, but we needed to stop after every few switchbacks to catch our breath and drink water.
We met a nice father-son team on our way up; they were heading in the opposite direction and they let us know we were close to the top of our climb. Congrats to the son, Thomas, who begins his college career this year at Middlebury College in Vermont.
We also met a young man named Matt -- Matt did the Camino last year, just a couple months after we did. We enjoyed sharing our memories of Spain.
We reached the top of the switchbacks and were rewarded with this view --
From here, Sunrise High Sierra Camp is only a couple tenths of a mile away.
We reached the Camp, filled our water bottles, and took a food break. The girls and I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, so we broke out our large bag of peanut M&Ms and snacked away. The bag was demolished in less than five minutes.
We had originally planned on sleeping at Sunrise High Sierra -- it looks like a nice place and the manager, who I ran into while walking to the compost toilet, is charming and nice. However, it was early in the day and the girls felt strong. We decided, therefore, to head over Cathedral Pass and sleep next to Upper or Lower Cathedral Lake.
On our way up the pass, we met a friendly, energetic family hiking in the other direction (coming into Sunrise High Sierra). The man called out, "This must be Trish, Alex, and Sage!" Then he said his family had read my book. The encounter was flattering -- it really lifted our spirits. The man and his wife have three kids, Zack, PJ, and Mia, and each looked like they were hiking strong. It was truly a pleasure to meet them. We spoke for a while and the family was so kind! Our conversation seemed to give us an energy boost; after we said our goodbyes, the girls and I hiked onward with renewed vigor.
Cathedral Pass is minor as far as passes go. It's isn't all that exposed...still, when the clouds gathered and the thunder began, I became uncomfortable.
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| View from Cathedral Pass |
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| Upper Cathedral Lake from the JMT |
We reached Upper Cathedral Lake and saw "Restoration Site -- No Camping" signs posted everywhere. We therefore hiked another mile or so down to the intersection for Lower Cathedral Lake. There's a half mile trail leading off the JMT toward the lake -- we followed it. The thunder was now LOUD and I thought the lightning was going to fly in our direction. There were a few, tiny, sad looking sites where we could technically pitch our tent, but our guidebook said there were tons of great sites close to the lake. We had reached the end of the trail, but we couldn't see those fabulous sites. Befuddled, we turned right and walked to the small ledges by Lower Cathedral Lake.
From there, we still couldn't see anything obvious. The thunder was constant and we were standing on rock, so I hurried the girls around the right side of the lake and into the trees. There -- a few tenths of a mile from the end of the path, in the trees -- were the campsites. At least fifteen tents were already set up. There really are a zillion beautiful sites around that lake -- you just have to walk down the path, take a right to the lake, walk over the ledges, and go into the trees to get there.
We found a flat spot and set up camp just in time. One minute after we safely stowed our gear, rain and hail came pouring down.
The storm only lasted twenty minutes (by Cathedral Lakes...apparently, the storm lasted for hours over Tuolumne Meadows). The sun then came out, melted the hailstones, and dried the ground.
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| Camping by Lower Cathedral Lake |
The girls played cards until it was too dark to see, then we began our snoozing.
*The next post, Hiking Day #3 - from Lower Cathedral Lake to Lyell Canyon, will be posted by late Sunday evening.
**Gear Review -- Backpacks! See the Gear page for my reviews on the Gossamer Gear Gorilla and the Gossamer Gear Quicksak. I used the Gorilla and the girls each used a Quicksak. In sum -- we LOVED them! A+
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