Have you ever booked a trip to tick off a bucket list item? Some of my bucket list items are so far-fetched and have been revered for so long that I couldn’t envisage ticking this one off: Yosemite National Park.
I know that sounds a bit over the top, but about 7 years ago I watched “Valley Uprising” (a film about climbing in Yosemite which comes highly recommended) and couldn’t wait to visit ever since. I LOVE mountains and just couldn’t imagine the scale and awesomeness of those in the Valley.
By chance, I had an offer from CrossFit HQ to do my CrossFit level 1 trainer’s course at the home of the CrossFit games at The Ranch in Aromas, California (thanks guys!) and I spied the proximity of Yosemite and an opportunity. *rubs hands with glee* I broached the subject with Hannis and it was with some serious squealing and jumping up and down that we realised Hannis would also be in the US on a work retreat that ended the weekend of my course. Believe in fate? I’m starting to. So we thought we’d combine a trip with our fourther broadener: hiking totally self-supported for 5 days with no contact to the outside world.
Hannis and I have never actually taken a flight together, we always manage to meet in strange places from different parts of the world, helped by the fact he lives in Kigali and I live in London. This time was no different. I finished my course on the Sunday evening and he flew across from Denver after the end of his staff retreat to meet me in Monterey, CA. He was lugging his bags from the car just as I pulled up at our hotel (ahem motel) for the evening. Since we travel separately and are crazily busy in our own lives, I often find that I only get truly excited just at the start of our trips and that they can be TAD disorganised. Actually, disorganised is unfair. Just a little complex in the planning. For a taster of the complexity: I flew out with Hannis’ camping and hiking stuff from London which I picked up from his parents’ house, he picked up a sleeping bag for me in Denver which was delivered to his work HQ (which he does not work at) via a colleague, we had to drop off one rental car and buy camping gas, a water purifier, a knife, toiletries and all our food on the way over to the Valley and we didn’t realise that one key item had been missed from our extensive shared packing list. Eek. Oh and we didn’t have a pre-planned way of getting to the start of our one-way hike or indeed a definite place to safely park our car. *covers eyes with hands* But we do like a challenge!
So Monday went like this:
Get up later than planned because you know, we’re on holiday. Have terrible motel breakfast (automatic pancakes and brightly coloured fruit loops) amongst some strange early Hallowe’en decorations. Walk down to Monterey beach (no we don’t have time and no we don’t care ha), dip toes, climb on rocks and watch splashy waves.
We then record a Happy Birthday video for Hannis’ Mum since on her birthday we may be out of mobile signal range. (special shout out to Carol who is an avid THC reader!!!). Muck around when we are meant to be packing. Pack, slowly. Eventually leave way later than planned. Make good progress to Monterey airport to drop off Hannis’ hire car and add him to my hire policy way quicker than intended. Arrive at REI before it is even open. Get coffee. Have three shots in my latte (I don’t even need one). Bounce around making loud noises and make Hannis once again wonder why he dates me. Spend a looooong time browsing in REI. Oh my that shop is so wonderful. Spend too long looking at Garmin watches which we don’t buy. Chat up the man in REI so he gives us a special discount code. WIN. Buy lots of dehydrated food. Sneak a couple extra in the basket – we’re not good when we’re hangry. Go to Target. Buy too much Jerky and peanut butter. [Hannis Edit: there is no such thing as too much Jerky!] Set off, drive and chat and finally feel like we’re really catching up. Arrive in the Valley to the most STUNNING views! Honestly, coming out of the tunnel to the views of the Valley are really amazing. Get permits and bear canisters.
Time to attempt to solve known problem no 1. During the summer there is a tourist bus that drives up the Tioga Pass to allow tourist access to some of the upper Yosemite trailheads, including the one we were due to start at. This bus had stopped running two weeks before. We did, however, know that this was the case and had some advice on forums to ask around for people heading that way to pay for a ride. So we asked the rangers. And lots of people in car parks. And left a sign on the message board in Camp 4 (where lots of the climbers tend to camp in the Valley). Nothing, nada, zilch. Cross fingers for someone to respond to the message we left on the board and move on to the next task.
So we next try and drive to the Valley Backpacker’s campsite. Turns out the clue is in the name and the closest you can drive is a half an hour hike by which time it’s getting dark, and we decide to pack our hiking bags properly in the car park of the Pines carpark.
It was at this point that we realised with great dismay that Hannis did not have his sleeping mat. A sleeping mat is an important piece of safety equipment because it insulates you from the ground at night. Now. I won’t gloss over this part as actually this is real life and an important part of our trip. There was an argument, phrases like “why is long distance so fucking hard” were thrown around. We were tired, not sure about what we were undertaking in a five day self-supported trip, it was now dark and too late to shop for a mat and we were now underprepared for sleeping in sub-zero conditions (when we’d spent a significant amount of time researching and buying arctic sleeping bags). Not everything is rosy and straightforward eh.
We got the rest of our kit packed, made up and instead of trying to hike up to the backpacker’s campsite we decided to stay in the campsite I’d (luckily) originally booked which was half an hour’s drive away (another story for another day) at Crane Flat. In actual fact, it was a straightforward drive and we had a nice secluded camp spot. We set up and settled in for our first night of camping with poor Hannis stoically and heroically refusing to take turns sleeping on my mat.
Tuesday rolls around and this is meant to be day one of our wilderness backpacking adventure. We get back down to the Valley from the campsite and start by splitting up and dashing to the places we thought we might be able to source a sleeping mat. The visitor centre were super helpful after a long wait in the queue and pointed me to the mountain shop based a little way away (which we hadn’t seen) but meanwhile Hannis is double-checking the gift shop which we’d been in the day before. Hallelujah, there’s a basic mat hiding on a bottom shelf in there.
We checked my phone now that we were in the Valley and have signal again – no messages were waiting in response to the one we left on the board. Bugger. So, I made a big sign with “TUOLUMNE MEADOWS TIOGA PASS” on, drop the car in Camp 4 carpark and stood smiling broadly holding up our hitchhikers’ sign. This was the first time I’ve ever done it and my god did it make me cringe. We expected to wait up to an hour, but actually after about 5 minutes a guy pulls up and says he can take us up to the turn off for the Tioga pass which is about a third of the journey. Craig turned out to be a GREAT guy. He was super friendly and stopped to show us an epic view of the Valley along the way and even offered us his leftover camping food which we politely declined (trust me we had enough). He dropped us at the Crane Flat Gas station at the bottom of the Tioga pass and bid us farewell. We took a deep breath and readied ourselves for a long wait this time. And about 30 seconds later Andrew and Julie pull up. We couldn’t believe our luck. Andrew is a seasonal firefighter within the National Park and Julie works in the park too. They were on a day off to head up to Mammoth to exchange some hiking boots and were passing the way we were going. We talked their ears off asking questions and got a whole loads of interesting answers, especially as the park has suffered with huge natural fires this summer that shut the Valley for weeks at a time. I’m sure they were so pleased to drop us off at Cathedral Lakes Trailhead!
We couldn’t believe we’d made it to the start of our planned route by lunch time given that we’d begun half an hour further away and had a late start having to buy emergency kit! A sign of things to come. We got out the map and proudly smoothed it out over a bear locker (they have these at every trail head – apparently bears will tear apart bags/tents/cars to get to tasty food if they can see or smell it), and I talked Hannis through the options for the day.
The hike was based on one that I found on the Outbound Collective which is an excellent resource. It is meant to be done over 6 days but the cables that you need to climb up to the top of Half Dome had been taken down which changed the trip so we decided to do it in 5 and stay flexible if the miles were too long or too short.
We set off following the John Muir Trail, already marveling at the beauty of Tuolumne Meadows, heading for Cathedral lakes which would be our campsite for the night. The plan was to camp near water where possible as we could only each carry 3L at a time but had a Sawyer Squeeze water purification kit. Not only this but by Autumn most of the smaller creeks and some of the major rivers have dried up in Yosemite (largely they’re fed by snowmelt) so we were conscious about being careful with water.
We were making good progress and were admiring the Cathedral peak high up to the left of the trail we were on. Cue mad idea number one. We dumped our packs, hidden amongst some logs, whipped out some water, snacks and the map and head up Cathedral peak. There was technically a “primitive” trail that went up the peak on the map so we knew it was possible but we just couldn’t find it. We took a rough bearing and ploughed on up. It was sweaty work with more than a tiny bit of rather precarious scrambling involved and some snow and ice nearer the top. Don’t tell Mum. The views from the top were INSANE. So beautiful. We shared the top with some climbers who’d reached the true peak 20-50m away which we couldn’t quite get to without ropes and gear and heard them whooping as they made it up. It was thoroughly delightful. We drank in the views and made our way back down to continue the day before getting too chilly. We hadn’t even made it 5 miles without changing the plan!
We arrived at Cathedral lakes in good time and I set up our cosy little tent on a patch of sand while Hannis went to sort out the water. The theme of the week was team work, which we are good at. It’s pretty nice to know that the other person is competent and the job is likely to be done when you get back! Tea for the night was a surprisingly tasty chicken pad thai – rehydrated and served in the pouch and eaten against a stunning backdrop of Cathedral peak turning flame red in the sunset.
As the sun went down so did the temperature, quite dramatically, so we retreated to our sleeping bags for our first night at altitude (>9600ft) to give them a real test. We both slept soundly and woke up to find that the tent was covered in ice and there was a crust of snow scattered about. We survived! And not only did we survive but we were comfortable to boot. Thank god we found a sleeping mat or it may have been a very different story. Phew.
As the sun rose on our lovely little camp spot everything started to thaw out and we packed up after a rehydrated scrambled egg brekkie (about as bad as it sounds) while the tent dried on a big flat rock.
We had a slightly longer day on our hands for day two through lovely evergreen woodland, exposed granite rock and sandy paths. We made excellent progress, arriving at our potential campsite at lunchtime. It was a good thing. Yosemite has a few backpackers’ campgrounds and this one, Sunrise High Sierra Camp, was huge and sprawling with concrete stands that clearly house safari type tents during the summer. It had largely been dismantled and felt like a bit of a ghost town. Hannis and I are more of a fan of the wilderness and solitude when out backpacking so we decided to carry on to the next potential spot a couple of miles away at Sunrise lakes. We’d made such a good decision. The Sunrise Lakes were super pretty and atmospheric, mirroring the pine trees and amazing granite faces around them.
We chose our spot, collected wood for a campfire and put up the hammock. It pays to arrive early! The campfire was tricky to light at first but pine cones turn out to be excellent kindling and we cosied up next to the fire which allowed us to stay out and about past 7pm! Both of us had come prepared for cold weather with down jackets, hats and gloves but the temperature drops really fast when the sun has gone down and you’ve stopped moving. We had tea, tidied up and put out the fire, hopping into bed for eskimo kisses – it’s pretty hard to cuddle when wrapped up in a thick down sleeping bag!
Day 3 was an interesting one. We’d made more progress than our original plan had catered for and had two relatively easy days so far which meant that if we stuck to the plan we’d only have about 4 miles of walking that day up to Cloud’s Rest. There were about three options for other places to camp and how to get there so we decided we’d get to Cloud’s Rest and evaluate how we felt.
One of the wonderful things about Yosemite is that the surroundings are always changing. As we climbed towards Cloud’s Rest the greenery became more sparse and the rock more prominent. Cloud’s rest is a well known lookout spot over the Valley and lots of people make the hike up from the Valley floor, often stopping to camp at one of the backpackers’ camps on the way up. It’s well known for a reason. I am not eloquent enough to describe the stunning, breathtaking 360 degree view. You feel like you’re truly on top of the world. Here’s a photo but it doesn’t even come close to doing it justice. I guess I’ll just have to rave enough about it to persuade you to go give it a go yourself…
We’d made it up in pretty darn good time (I’m just a little competitive and was worried that there would be crowds at this well known spot). We were lucky to have beasted the way up because as we left a few more people started arriving and the clouds were rolling into the valley and starting to obscure the views. We had a metaphorical crossroads here – interestingly there were two ways to go with two potential campsites (limited by the water situation) – have a ridiculously short day or a ridiculously long one. We chose the latter and off we went. The terrain began to metamorphose again as we descended – from bare rock to wooded forest and then to something very eery. Yosemite, as I alluded to earlier, suffered some devastating fires in the summer and we got to walk through some of the areas that were affected. For miles the trees were burnt blackened branchless husks, many strewn on the forest floor where they’d falling after the fire and starting to break down back to the earth they’d grown from. But juxtaposed to this was the most phenomenal growth of the smaller plants on the forest floor which was carpeted with new life. Nature is insanely adaptable and amazing.
It was hot and sweaty work with the temperature rising as we rapidly descended and tried to make fast progress and we were both feeling the pressure of needing to get to a campsite before dark. Just before we were due to turn back onto the John Muir trail much further down than where we’d exited it we came across a stream. Aha! We could purify some water here and have enough to sustain ourselves overnight if we didn’t make it to our planned campsite. This then turned into some toe dipping and hair dunking, revelling in the chance for a quick break and to wash and cool off. And then it escalated, there we were squealing in our nuddy pants in the creek just off the trail. Thankfully we hadn’t seen anyone for hours and felt that we were unlikely to! It was a much needed refresher and we took off again giggling and ready for the rest of our long day with the peace of mind of having our water supplies topped up.
We started to follow the course of the Valley of the Merced river up towards Merced lake but we were much higher up than the Valley floor where the river was. The views continued to change but were no less spectacular. The sun glinted on huge granite rock faces across the Valley and accentuated the orange glow of the crispy dry ferns that waved lightly in the breeze both sides of our path. The path took us across what would be several feeding rivers from the mountains down to the Merced river and I got more than a few lessons on how amazing Yosemite might be for kayaking in the spring time! Apparently sliding down huge rock faces in a plastic boat is terribly fun?
As we started to descend down towards the Merced river my knees began to feel the weight of my pack and the large number of metres we’d descended. I much prefer going up if I’m honest. We just kept going down and down, it felt never-ending. But nothing could kill our good spirits that day and we kept plodding and wittering away. We eventually reached the valley floor (hurrah!) and quickly realised finding a camping spot might not be easy. Our tent relies on pegs to stay upright (it’s an excellent Vango tent but that’s the one drawback we’ve come across so far) and any spare metre not covered by dense vegetation was bare rock. Snookered. So we plodded on, and on, over dried out rivers that clearly during the summer were raging. Our mood still didn’t wane largely due to the fact there was always going to be somewhere to camp at another backpackers campsite at the Merced lake but boy was that a long way. Eventually, Hannis perked up and stopped for a second. He could hear the river. A welcome sound, even though we weren’t exactly desperate for water it just took the pressure off. We headed off the path through the trees and popped out at the most welcome sight (or site!). A fork in the Merced river with a little sandy beach and a few spots in the trees that were flat and big enough for our tent. Perseverance or luck? Probably a bit of both. Our plan to stay up and photo the stars was scuppered by some intense tiredness after dinner and we conked out almost as soon as it got dark!
Day 4 thankfully involved a lazy morning where we washed ourselves and our kit and left it to dry as we hiked the short mile up to the Merced lake, which was be-a-uuuutiful. We sat and mused on our trip so far as we looked on the perfectly still water with the rolling hills and dense evergreens reflecting almost perfectly in the water. Bliss. We spent a little longer than we meant to but to be honest I’m all for making the most of these little moments in life, and I won’t forget that one very fast.
We hiked back to our drying off kit, dunked one more time then packed up and started to set off. Day 4 wasn’t due to be anything like the miles that we put into day 3 although, having gone to bed early and had a lazy morning my body actually felt in reasonable shape. Our day meandered along the course of the Merced river with a few undulating inclines and declines and nothing particularly strenuous, time for lots of photos and breaks to scoff jerky and Cliff bars (both excellent hiking foods I tell you). I’d be so interested to go back to Yosemite in the Spring, I think the terrain and atmosphere would be completely different with the volume of water that would be around after the snowmelt. There was not a drop of water to be seen in lots of the places on the map marked “waterfall” and the river quietly bubbled along beside us.
We had a little exercise in adaptability once again on Day 4. We’d selected an area on the map we thought we’d be able to camp. There are some restrictions on camping within arbitrary distances of main roads and we’d planned to stop along the river just short of where these restrictions were in place. Not a chance, the valley floor was flat at the part of the river but we just couldn’t find a spot not covered in vegetation or boulders that wasn’t almost directly on the path. We reviewed our options and decided the backpackers’ campsite at Little Yosemite Valley where we would have been staying on the original plan anyway would be our best option. We arrived there in good time and realised how lucky we’d been so far to camp totally in the wild, in total solitude and never with another person in sight. In fact during the first four days we crossed paths with between 10-20 people in total. This backpackers’ campsite was on the way from the Valley to Half Dome and Clouds rest and it was vast. It also happened to be Friday night. When we arrived there were just a few of the spots taken so we chose the one right on the camp boundary the farthest from any others. By the time we went to sleep it was practically full and people were still arriving. I had to remind myself that sharing is ok! Everyone deserves a slice of our wonderful planet so long as they look after it.
That night we managed to actually stay up late enough to sit in our hammock and watch the stars with Half Dome as our backdrop and celebrate the journey so far and commiserate the fact it was our last night. The time had flown by in a haze of outdoorsy joy!
Day 5 and the hike down to the Valley. We decided to have a relatively early start to avoid the crowds which was a good decision. Our route took us down the Mist Trail, a series of steep rocky steps that seemed to plunge away for miles. Again, Yosemite didn’t disappoint us and we were treated to new evolving views of stunning scenery. I don’t think I once got bored of exclaiming “Wow!” every three seconds. As we got closer and closer to the Valley the visitor numbers hugely increased. We were now well within a day hike of the Valley and there are some sensational waterfalls and rock formations on this trail. So much so that one of our friend’s recently proposed to his girlfriend on that very walk. I can see why! As we walked past the waterfall where he’d proposed there was a pretty rainbow playing in the spray from the falls.
The further down we got, the more hikers we got to say hello to and offer some encouragement for the steep climb on their way up, and the slower we became as we realised how close we were to our dream trip ending. We were practically at a snail’s pace as we came into Happy Isles, our designated end point. What a trip. We hopped on the free shuttle and went to find some pizza and a coke to revere about the trip and for once I wasn’t quite ready to start eagerly planning the next. Just happy to let my brain steep in the memories we’d just made being totally isolated from all our daily stresses and distractions. Pure bliss.
Wow, that’s long. Well done if you made it to the end! I can’t wait to read it back and relive it later on when inevitably my memory starts to fail me.
If you want any advice on how to plan a trip like this drop us a line! Been to Yosemite? What did you think of it? Did you manage to get off the beaten track? We would definitely recommend five days off the grid!
Lots of love,
Fern and Hannis xxx