Better B-Man Yosemite Trip

“When we last left our intrepid Bowlderman, he had forgotten his wallet, thus requiring cancellation of a much-needed respite in Yosemite (why doesn't "respite" rhyme with "Yosemite"?).

Photos here. Captions not done yet, but that doesn't matter too much for these. When you get to the one of Pamela packing up lunch items at the car, that's from the previous weekend's day hike.

This time, things worked out perfectly. I actually put the wallet in the car on Saturday night, so there would be no repeat of the idiocy of the previous trip. Anyway, we were off at the butt-crack of dawn - well, a little after 7 AM, actually. We waved thank you to Hikin Mike, our tour advisor, upon passing through Atwater, then arrived at Oakhurst a bit ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, I either forgot or didn't know that the USFS ranger desk at the local visitor center was closed on Sundays - oops! So no permit. We'd be camping - gasp! - illegally. Then it was up Sky Ranch Road, a bone-jarring 25+ mile forest service road through lovely, albeit dusty, forest. Great views of Fresno Dome. As we neared the trailhead, we got some great views of the surrounding mountains. We finally arrived at the Quartz Mountain trailhead, exactly 4 minutes later than I had estimated - not bad.

We loaded up and hit the trail. Fortunately, I had correctly guessed that there would be no available water along the trail, so brought more than usual. It was a balmy 72 degrees, so there was perspiration during the hike. We took one significant break - about 20 minutes - then arrived at the lowest of the Chain Lakes at about 3:45. We continued up to the middle lake, which was nothing short of spectacular! We found an awesome campsite and set up camp.

We had our usual freeze-dried lasagne (Cameron's favorite), along with other stuff. When the lasagne was rehydrating, the alpenglow hit Gale Peak across the lake, so we rushed over and snapped a couple of pics there.

Once night fell, the stars were gorgeous - the not-quite-full moon wouldn't rise for a couple more hours, so it made for great stargazing. We were tired, so hit the sack at about 8.

When I woke up, I felt great! Unfortunately, it was only 11 PM. I hardly slept the rest of the night, in part because of a throbbing altitude-induced headache (we were at around 9100'). But I wasn't tired in the morning. Cameron and I actually got up at around 3 to pee, and the moon was so bright we didn't even need our headlamps!

Anyway, we got up Monday morning, I made hash browns, and we packed up and hit the trail. We had to get back fairly quick for Cameron to get to his dance class, so we did the 4-5 miles in a blazing 2.5 hours!

On the way back, we decided to take a different road back to the highway, hoping to avoid some of the bumps. It was a nice diversion, and we ended up helping a young car-camping couple whose battery had died - our good deed for the day that will come back to us some day. We flew home and Cameron made it to his class with 2 minutes to spare!

Great trip - gorgeous lakes. It would be great to stay 2 nights and try to scramble up Gale Peak or some of the other ridges, etc. near there. Next time!”

“I know I haven't posted in a long while (not since I asked about sleeping mats), but those pictures... WOW! Do you mind if I use #10 as the wallpaper on my desktop? That has GOT to be one of the better pictures that I've ever seen... no offense everyone. Nice to know you had a good time, too.”

“Great pics, B-Man! Boy, the west sure is colorful.”

“Looks like gooood times, B-man !!”

“Wonderful pictures - that's one happy child.”

“Thanks, trekkin. #10 actually looked better in person (surprise!) - the reddish colors were richer. Seems like it's hard to get the colors in the reflection to more closely match the actual colors, like they do in reality. Download away!

Hi Hodge! Forgot to mention that we were celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving up there in Yosemite! Actually, we did each wear a hat with "Canada" on it on over the weekend, telling people "Happy Thanksgiving." They looked at us like we were from outer space. Or Canada.”