Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Hiking Uphill: 239ft
Hiking Downhill: 994ft
Distance Hiked: 12 miles
Post by Melissa:
Today we are heading to Tuolumne Meadows (our next resupply point) and we know it's going to be a semi easy hiking day because we only need to go 12 miles and most of the terrain is either flat or downhill. Hooray! As we are packing up our stuff on the top of Donohue Pass, Anne and John Russell ascend the pass and walk up to our campsite. This is the couple that helped me diagnose my feet problems at Vermillion Valley Resort. It was great to see them again. They took a quick break at our campsite while we finished packing up our stuff. After chatting with them for a bit and showing them the Coyote footprints from the night before we set off down the trail making our way to Tuolumne Meadows.
As we are descending Donohue Pass, Nick passes by a JMT hiker going the opposite direction who strikes up a conversation w/Nick. I hike on ahead and when Nick finally catches up with me he said that this hiker had met Royce and Tweek at Tuolumne Meadows a day earlier and that Royce had been there for nearly a week because he was sick. We were hoping to see Royce at the campgrounds tonight when we arrived. The last time we had seen him was when he was hitching a ride to Las Vegas out of Independence.
Here are some pictures of the scenery in the early hours of the morning
Hiking down into Lyell Canyon
Loving the flat lands!
Squirrel!
The PCT trail runs right along Tuolumne River in Lyell Canyon. Since we had an easier day of hiking ahead we chose to spend a fair amount of the day fishing. We knew we wanted to reach Tuolumne Meadows before 7:30pm so we could get a hot meal at the grill. We figured we had a few hours to get in some good fishing. This river was perfect for fly fishing. The river was accessible without a lot of nearby trees to get tangled up in. Nick was very excited to catch some fish and getting some more practice on his fly rod.
Nick enjoying some fly fishing in this picture below
Picture of the river downstream
While Nick is fishing, a dragon fly lands on him. Pretty cool picture!
I'm doing some spinning reel fishing and getting some good bites!
Nick catches another itty bitty fish. Although they are small, it's still fun to catch them!
My catch. It's so tiny!! LOL
We move down the canyon and do more fishing. I catch this action shot of Nick.
Got one!
After a few hours of fishing and moving down the river to fish some more we decide we better get some miles in and I hike on ahead towards Tuolumne Meadows while Nick continues to fish a while longer. We want to make sure we get to the Tuolumne Meadows grill to get some dinner before they close. I hike a few miles solo and then stop for a foot break and ibuprofen. I tried to make it all the way to Tuolumne Meadows without taking a break but my foot pain was too intense. While I was taking a break there I tried to feed a marmot some organic dried mango but he wasn't interested. What kind of marmot doesn't eat mango?! LOL Nick showed up a few minutes later and after wrapping up our break we continued on towards Tuolumne Meadows. We had about 3 more miles to go.
Almost there! 1.4 miles to go!
We finally reach Tuolumne Meadows campground and make our way over to the store and grill. When we arrive at the grill it's just after 7pm. We are bummed to see when we arrive that the grill closed a few hours earlier around 5pm. Uuugghhhh! So much for getting a hot dinner...instead we went into the store and bought some cold sandwiches and cold drinks. It wasn't anything special but it was better than nothing.
We see this bear trap while walking around Tuolumne Meadows campgrounds. I've never seen one of these before and was fascinated with it! Nick walked over to see if a bear was inside but there wasn't.
Eventually we make our way over to the backpackers camping area and set up our tent. There was no sign of Royce or any other PCT hikers that we recognized at the backpackers camp. We did see many JMT hikers there though and the campground was pretty full.
We went to the bathrooms to brush our teeth and get ready for bed and guess who we ran into at the bathrooms?! Rob (Tubby) and Cat (Buffy)! These were the 2 we met our second day of hiking who gave us some awesome trail magic. We continued to run into them on the trail several times thereafter. We learned that Rob was there taking a week long wilderness first aid class. Cat was there with Rob's Mom dropping him off. It was great to see them both. Rob ended up setting up his hammock nearby and he and Nick drank a few beers and caught up while I went to bed. I was exhausted and was ready for sleep :-)
Hiking Uphill: 239ft
Hiking Downhill: 994ft
Distance Hiked: 12 miles
Post by Melissa:
Today we are heading to Tuolumne Meadows (our next resupply point) and we know it's going to be a semi easy hiking day because we only need to go 12 miles and most of the terrain is either flat or downhill. Hooray! As we are packing up our stuff on the top of Donohue Pass, Anne and John Russell ascend the pass and walk up to our campsite. This is the couple that helped me diagnose my feet problems at Vermillion Valley Resort. It was great to see them again. They took a quick break at our campsite while we finished packing up our stuff. After chatting with them for a bit and showing them the Coyote footprints from the night before we set off down the trail making our way to Tuolumne Meadows.
As we are descending Donohue Pass, Nick passes by a JMT hiker going the opposite direction who strikes up a conversation w/Nick. I hike on ahead and when Nick finally catches up with me he said that this hiker had met Royce and Tweek at Tuolumne Meadows a day earlier and that Royce had been there for nearly a week because he was sick. We were hoping to see Royce at the campgrounds tonight when we arrived. The last time we had seen him was when he was hitching a ride to Las Vegas out of Independence.
Here are some pictures of the scenery in the early hours of the morning
Hiking down into Lyell Canyon
Loving the flat lands!
Squirrel!
The PCT trail runs right along Tuolumne River in Lyell Canyon. Since we had an easier day of hiking ahead we chose to spend a fair amount of the day fishing. We knew we wanted to reach Tuolumne Meadows before 7:30pm so we could get a hot meal at the grill. We figured we had a few hours to get in some good fishing. This river was perfect for fly fishing. The river was accessible without a lot of nearby trees to get tangled up in. Nick was very excited to catch some fish and getting some more practice on his fly rod.
Nick with his first river caught trout on the Tuolumne River. Look close...the fish is TINY! :-)
Another tiny fishy on the fly...
While Nick is fishing, a dragon fly lands on him. Pretty cool picture!
Nick catches another itty bitty fish. Although they are small, it's still fun to catch them!
We move down the canyon and do more fishing. I catch this action shot of Nick.
Got one!
After a few hours of fishing and moving down the river to fish some more we decide we better get some miles in and I hike on ahead towards Tuolumne Meadows while Nick continues to fish a while longer. We want to make sure we get to the Tuolumne Meadows grill to get some dinner before they close. I hike a few miles solo and then stop for a foot break and ibuprofen. I tried to make it all the way to Tuolumne Meadows without taking a break but my foot pain was too intense. While I was taking a break there I tried to feed a marmot some organic dried mango but he wasn't interested. What kind of marmot doesn't eat mango?! LOL Nick showed up a few minutes later and after wrapping up our break we continued on towards Tuolumne Meadows. We had about 3 more miles to go.
Almost there! 1.4 miles to go!
We finally reach Tuolumne Meadows campground and make our way over to the store and grill. When we arrive at the grill it's just after 7pm. We are bummed to see when we arrive that the grill closed a few hours earlier around 5pm. Uuugghhhh! So much for getting a hot dinner...instead we went into the store and bought some cold sandwiches and cold drinks. It wasn't anything special but it was better than nothing.
Eventually we make our way over to the backpackers camping area and set up our tent. There was no sign of Royce or any other PCT hikers that we recognized at the backpackers camp. We did see many JMT hikers there though and the campground was pretty full.
We went to the bathrooms to brush our teeth and get ready for bed and guess who we ran into at the bathrooms?! Rob (Tubby) and Cat (Buffy)! These were the 2 we met our second day of hiking who gave us some awesome trail magic. We continued to run into them on the trail several times thereafter. We learned that Rob was there taking a week long wilderness first aid class. Cat was there with Rob's Mom dropping him off. It was great to see them both. Rob ended up setting up his hammock nearby and he and Nick drank a few beers and caught up while I went to bed. I was exhausted and was ready for sleep :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment