What to take, what to take? I have never been one to pack light, but the thought of carrying on my back everything I need for 3 weeks was impetus enough to toss a few things aside. The day before catching my flight to California I settled on a new backpack and then set about trying to stuff everything into it. A few things were in and out a number of times before a final decision was made. The last little panic was when I checked in for my flight on-line and actually read the fine print on "dangerous goods". Lithium batteries - really?!? With the scenic wonders allegedly ahead of me, I had stocked up on 8 spare batteries for my camera. I wasn't about to leave them behind! I ran out to MEC and bought a solar charger just in case I was going to have to use my old iPhone as my camera. Lucky for me Westjet wasn't fussed with the spare batteries and my trip was underway.
Smooth flights Calgary - LA and LA - Fresno on the 9th. A late arrival in Fresno and a bit of an issue tracking down my backpack. Seems it had been put aside before I got to the baggage claim area and after about an hour of harassing people, an airline rep was summoned from his drive home to come back and reunite me with all my worldly possessions.
The group was not meeting until noon-ish on the 11th, so I had all day on the 10th to explore Fresno. I have to say, it is one of the least remarkable cities I have ever been in. Not much for a tourist to see, and I can't even say that it's pretty to look at. Of course, 4 years of drought may have something to do with that. But - apparently it is the 5th largest city in California and I was really expecting something a little more exciting.
Our group was to be 12 + 2 guides. Ten of us met in Fresno and shared the van ride from Fresno to Yosemite National Park. In no particular order - David & Sarah, Kaylee, Mike T, Mike K, Linda, Jane, Dixie and Alex. You could safely say that we were all (well, maybe not Alex) a bit nervous about the challenge ahead of us over the next 3 weeks. While most of us were on the far side of 50, Alex, Mike K and Sarah represented the youth (under 50) corps. J had arrived in the area a few days previous and met us at the park. One other person who had registered for the trip was unable to make it. So - now a group of 11. Our guides - Alex and Katie - met us at the Tuolumne Meadows campground. What happy bundles of energy; we knew we would be in good hands!
The official start to the trail is at a place called Happy Isles. For logistical reasons we, instead, would be starting from Tuolumne. That cut about 20 miles and 5,000 feet of elevation gain off our trip (some of that mileage would be recouped at the end of the trail where we departed via a longer than normal route). No complaints here! Uncharacteristically, it was raining a bit when we got to the campground - hope this isn't a harbinger of weather to come. A third SYMG person was with us for the night. Sierra helped with dinner and breakfast prep and would then drive all extraneous gear back to civilization for safekeeping. Each of us had arranged to borrow whatever gear we needed from SYMG - backpacks, tents, pads, sleeping bags, etc. This was all handed out, tents erected, gear sorted one more time, and some words of wisdom & instruction from Alex and Katie. Early to bed and ready to go in the morning! Apparently a bear wandered into camp during the night, but most of us slept right through it.
Before setting out on this trip most of us had viewed the movie "Mile, Mile and a Half" about a group of friends who hiked the trail in 2011 - a 200% snowfall year. There were lots of crossings of snowfields and hip-high creeks. The area has been in drought ever since, so we weren't sure whether there would be any similar challenges for our group. Our seasonal timing was about the same as theirs, so it would be interesting to compare. At the time I thought that maybe this was a bit early in the season to go, but in August the Tuolumne Meadows campground was closed for a while due to an outbreak (among the squirrel population) of the plague and also in August there was intense smoke from forest fires on sections of the trail. So - it seems our schedule worked out pretty darned well.
No comments:
Post a Comment