Martyb 'n' Cameron in Yosemite!

“Photos here!

We headed out a bit later than planned on Saturday morning, then made up the time by less futzing with gear at the trailhead at Badger Pass.

We started out in 50-degree, partly cloudy weather, and peeled off clothing almost immediately, as we skied along Glacier Point Road in slushy snow, noting the fast melting snowpack revealing bare ground in many places. For once, we didn't have a definitive plan on where to camp, but had ID'd a few spots on the map and uploaded their coords to the Etrex.

We arrived at the jumping off place for the Limit Trail, and decided instead to continue on a bit further to the Bridalveil Creek Campground road. Just as the road bends east and enters the campground (in summer months anyway), we made a beeline due south up the slight hill. The rule is that you have to camp out of view of trails, and we quickly accomplished that as we weaved through moderately thick forest.

We arrived at a small clearing and immediately adopted it (37.66206°N, 119.62516°W) as our campsite! There was a nice flattish spot for our tent, and some thick snow covering for us to try out the new shovel to carve some "furniture."

After setting up the tent, we skied over to another neighboring clearing and buzzed around a bit until we got tired. Then it was back to the camp to melt snow and cook dinner. You can see in the photos the kitchen and dining area I constructed - rather comfortable I must say!

Dinner was Cameron's favorite, Lasagne with meat sauce (forget which brand), which was an excellent main course with the fresh parmesan we brought, not to mention the Nile Spice soup appetizers of "sweet corn chowder" and "split pea." Dessert was some chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate.

Just before bed we hit the "bathroom," a specially dug pee hole Cameron prepared, including a well-compacted path to it from our tent! Upon returning to the tent, we turned off the headlamps and looked up. WOW!! What an amazing sight! No moon until 2-3 AM, so the sky was an unbelievable saturation of starlight - never seen anything like it. Well, once, during last year's winter camping trip in Yosemite....

During the night we both utilized our never-before-attempted technique of using a pee bottle. I highly recommend it!

We got up at 6, had a nice breakfast of hash browns (Richmoor brand, I think), coffee, hot chocolate, etc., then packed up. Just before getting started a light rain began to fall, which stayed with us all the way back. We were pretty warm from skiing, though, and knew we would be in a warm car in a while, so it didn't bother us.

We hit the road by 10:30, hit In 'n' Out Burger in Merced at 1, then got home by 3:30. Still haven't finished unpacking, but I'm a single parent this week, so have more important duties!

Will likely add a few details to this trip report as I remember them, including posting the avi files I took with the new digital camera, if I can figure out where to post them (probably on one of my personal web pages)....

Great trip! Can't wait to go again!

(not proofreading this, so my apologies for any misspelings)”

“What a great way to spend the weekend, Marty !! I'm glad you guys enjoyed it.”

“Cameron looks like a pro out there, your kitchen area looks very cool as well.

I'm glad Cameron got to share this wonderful adventure with you...he's learning the right stuff!”

“Great pictures Marty. Cameron definitely has your smile.”

“Yeah, Hodge, this time we got the weather right!

Thanks, mtnsteve, and thanks for the guestbook entry on webshots. Re: the kitchen, crouching down on the ground (or snow) cooking always kills my back - this was the most pleasurable backcountry cooking experience I've ever had! BTW, I usually check out your winter camping photos for inspiration - I'll have to try some up in Lassen sometime....

That's funny, treebait, everyone always says he looks entirely like my wife and not at all like me - hah!”

“Nice pics, Marty! Looks like the weather was good and you ate well! I liked your furniture, too.

I've thought about the pee bottle thing too, but haven't followed through. I guess it couldn't be worse than the bedpan at the hospital!”

“Looks like Cameron enjoyed that trip. The look on the face doesn't usually lie. Good pics, Marty...”

“Great photos! Looks like you two had a great time. Did you get much wind Saturday night?”

“Martyb, I came down sometime last night and found the photos and then read the trip report this morning. Glad it went so well. I've been staying pretty near the house the last several days just in case Pamela changed her mind and decided to take me to Peru.

Looks like the camera did a good job for you. Is the shovel the one you talked about getting from REI?

In 'n' Out Burger . . . did you go with the 4x4 and fries??????”

“Hey Hikin' Mike - We waved to ya when we passed through Atwater on Sat. AM and Sun. PM - did you see us?! No wind at all the whole weekend, which was probably the best part about the weather. It did rain on us for pretty much the whole drive back, so it looks like we timed it just right.

Geezr - Just had the basic cheeseburger & fries because I didn't want to report any bad news on the Losing Weight thread. Yes, the shovel is the one from REI - it worked great. You may notice in the picture of one of the sunken vestibules there is a wall of snow blocks - I had dug too big an area (for both vestibules, actually), so had to block the large gaps with some snow. The shovel was great at cutting out manageable sizes of snow blocks (no snow saw required!).

Talked to Pamela this morning - she has a ton of work to do this week, so may not get to Macchu Picchu, but was able to play tourist in Lima with her colleagues over the weekend. She's had a great time so far. Of course, it would be better if you were there, too, but she didn't say that....”

“I was with the "TT Sierra Snowshoe" group that weekend. We had some MAJOR wind Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning!!”

“Looks like the perfect recipe for life long memories! Thanks for sharing your photos and report. I agree with Mtn Steve...tell Cameron he looks like a pro out there!”

“That's great! Your son looks like he had a blast. Thanks for the write-up and pics!”

“I promised a few more details as I remembered them....

Cameron's pack weighed in at 8 pounds, including liquid (Gatorade), which was his heaviest pack in his almost 6 years of backpacking. Despite the "heavy" pack, he fell while skiing only 3 times the whole two days, less than usual.

Amazingly, my pack weighed in at only about 40 pounds. I seem to be getting better at limiting the amount of food - still had a fair amound of leftover snacks, but we pretty much ate everything for our dinner and breakfast.

There was a fair amount of condensation inside the fly of the Half Dome +2, it seemed to be there as soon as we got in. I had the top vents fully open, and, despite my beautifully crafted snow blocks around the bottom edges of the vestibules, there were still sizeable gaps around them. I think the total lack of wind was a factor - no circulation.

Cam brought his "connect 4" game, which was a good activity: lightweight plastic, fun for 20 minutes or so....

Wildlife: I was a little concerned, with the quickly melting snow and high temps, that we might encounter a bear. We didn't, but I may have brought my canister if I'd know there were so many bare (heh!) patches and that it would be so springlike. I deliberately did not tell Cameron that bears could conceivably visit us. We were awakened at about 5:30 AM by a jackhammer, er, I mean, a woodpecker - 3 of them, actually - who thought it would be a good time to get to work!”