Yosemite National Park, 18th July 2017

[Litehiker]

I love Yosemite. Last year (2018) my wife and I did the standard valley tour.


Six years before I backpacked with my Sierra Club group from White Wolf up the Tuolomene River to Tuolomene Meadows in 4 days. Great hike!


Luckily i live in the Las Vegas valley ang get to see a lot of western National parks.


Eric B.

[Percy]

I love Yosemite. Last year (2018) my wife and I did the standard valley tour.


Six years before I backpacked with my Sierra Club group from White Wolf up the Tuolomene River to Tuolomene Meadows in 4 days. Great hike!


Luckily i live in the Las Vegas valley ang get to see a lot of western National parks.


Eric B.

After I visited Yosemite I became fixated on the John Muir Trail, I’ve now discovered the PCT which is becoming something of an obsession.

[Litehiker]

Percy,


In the summer of 1980 I worked on building (from "scratch") the 9 mile Snow Creek section of the PCT. We lived in tents and were paid $12.90/hour. That was the California laborer's wage that contractors to the the US Forest Service had to pay us. We started at 7,500 ft. and worked our way down into the desert to 2,000 ft. The Forest Service had surveyed the trail and marked it with with 1 meter tall wooden stakes every 50 meters.


Very hard work. Pick, shovel and sledge hammer mostly. I was "special" in that I was assigned to run the gasoline powered Swedish drill to drill holes for the ammonium nitrate explosives we used to blast boulders. Morning was cook your own breakfast on your own backpacking stove and pack a cold lunch. Dinner was a repeat of breakfast. Have a beer from the case sitting in Snow Creek behind our tents or smoke some weed if the beer supply ran out. Then hop in the tent until 6AM the next morning.


I have never returned to that section but it's on my bucket list. I have backpacked from Kennedy Meadows to Olancha Peak and back. Beautiful country!


Eric B.

[Percy]

Great story.


If I ever get round to hiking the PCT you'll have to come and walk that section with me.

[Litehiker]

Percy,
You're on. I live in Henderson, NV, the southern suburb of Las Vegas. If you do all of the PCT give me a heads up that you're ready to start at the Mexican border end and I'll PM you my email address and phone number. Hopefully Trump will be out of office so there is no danger of you being arrested as an "illegal immigrant". 


Eric B.

[roughyed]

I love Yosemite and the surrounding area.  I have done a short section of the JMT from the valley to Donahue Pass.  It was stunning. 

The PCT is a dream, but taking 6 months off work unlikely to happen.

[Litehiker]

roughyed,


I feel your pain at having to work instead of backpacking.
 But I'm retired and that too is not as easy as it sounds. First you do 6 months of vacation then you have to turn right around and do another 6 months. ;o)


Eric B.

[Petrolhead]

After I visited Yosemite I became fixated on the John Muir Trail, I’ve now discovered the PCT which is becoming something of an obsession.

Likewise Percy. Unless I move to America, the PCT is never going to happen. But the JMT... at a rough guess we've already covered about 50 miles of it from what we have done in Yosemite / Sequoia / Eastern Sierras. It's starting to look like it might be possible to tick off the JMT in sections before it's too late.


Currently, my obsession is based squarely around Thousand Island Lake. Next time we're back over there we're going to look into borrowing camping gear from a friend and doing a 2/3 dayer out there.


I hope you get to do as much of this wonderful trail as possible.


 

[Litehiker]

Petrolhead,


"... before it's too late."  Sooo, what is the age of "too late"? 60? 70? (I'm 76 so watch what you say.)


 In 2017, at 74, I backpacked the Grand Canyon from the North Rim to the Colorado and up to the South Rim. (4 days) It "strangely" seemed more difficult than when I did it 6 years earlier on other GC trails. ;o)
BTW, the 2 day downhill trek hurt my  thighs. Uphill for 2 days was tough but no real muscle pain.


Eric B.

[Petrolhead]

Petrolhead,


"... before it's too late."  Sooo, what is the age of "too late"? 60? 70? (I'm 76 so watch what you say.)


 In 2017, at 74, I backpacked the Grand Canyon from the North Rim to the Colorado and up to the South Rim. (4 days) It "strangely" seemed more difficult than when I did it 6 years earlier on other GC trails. ;o)
BTW, the 2 day downhill trek hurt my  thighs. Uphill for 2 days was tough but no real muscle pain.


Eric B.

No no mate, please don't get me wrong. I plan to just crack on until my body says no. It's the issue of the 5000 miles-ish journey to get to the trails and to keep doing a back and forth until it's done that is more prohibitive.


And there's so much else I'd want to see too. I'll probably end up just carrying on ticking off the best bits and not worry about it too much to be honest. It's definitely a desire but not a driven one.


There's so much else in your wonderful country to see, it would seem wrong to deal with all the travel back and forth just to focus on one part, glorious as it is.


I'm yet to do Utah for instance...


That's a VERY impressive list of stuff you've done recently. I bet it was all fantastic. 

[jontea]

After I visited Yosemite I became fixated on the John Muir Trail, I’ve now discovered the PCT which is becoming something of an obsession.

I read the story of Cheryl Strayed, who hiked a huge chunk of the PCT. It's called ’Wild’ really enjoyed the book, and I should imagine walking the PCT is life changing.

[Petrolhead]

I read the story of Cheryl Strayed, who hiked a huge chunk of the PCT. It's called ’Wild’ really enjoyed the book, and I should imagine walking the PCT is life changing.

John, I just watched a fantastic PCT documentary on YouTube by John Amorosano. If you're at all interested I can definitely recommend it.

[jontea]

John, I just watched a fantastic PCT documentary on YouTube by John Amorosano. If you're at all interested I can definitely recommend it.

Thanks for that, I'll have a watch 

[mananddog]

Oddly enough I am wearing my 33 year old Yosemite  tee-shirt. I have been twice, climbing and back packing in the 80s and 90s. Although busy it is very easy to get to places where you are soon on  your own. At least you could do back in the day in September.

[Petrolhead]

Oddly enough I am wearing my 33 year old Yosemite  tee-shirt. I have been twice, climbing and back packing in the 80s and 90s. Although busy it is very easy to get to places where you are soon on  your own. At least you could do back in the day in September.

We've been twice too. Both last year. In the "Fall", the valley was busy and the traffic was terrible. But we saw it as just having to suck it up. For a lot of people cruising around the valley loop in a vehicle is the only chance they'll ever get to see scenery like that. There was one day we wanted to do Pothole Dome but simply couldn't get there due to the traffic heading up to Glacier Point (I think!). But we still managed to find plenty of peace and quiet just a short walk from the crowds. It was also clear that 90% of them stayed in the valley. We spent an incredible evening watching sunset at Tenaya Lake completely alone. Bliss.


However, our first visit was mid February. There was literally NO ONE in pretty much all the areas we visited. It was utterly incredible to be in such a stunning winter wonderland and the vast majority of time not seeing any other humans. Vernal Falls was the only busy bit and we learned later that it's the most popular walk in the Valley so I guess it's to be expected.


A winter visit is so very worth it.


All that said, the surrounding area of the Eastern Sierras is probably even better, free, and far less busy. I'm not sure we'll be back any time soon even though we'll be passing right by it.


Photo from our memorable night at Tenaya Lake, elev. 8,150ft, just because: