Sierrapalooza 2006 - Half Dome

“LOL i love the squirrel rainbow pic man.. the lower cathedral one is niiiiice.”

“ooo, I absolutely hate Steller Jays, especially at sunrise!

Way to take the Mist Trail/Rainbow shot to another level, that's what makes you an excellent photographer Windwalker!

I do usually take my tripod these days, just was trying to save weight, it's only a pound though.... Hey do you anchor your tripod? I've heard of people hanging rocks off thier tri-pod, sounds like a steller (pun intended) idea. Perhaps a mesh bag....”

“Paige.. he dont mess around when it comes to tripods.. he hikes a nice tripod around.. iirc its like 6-9lbs.”

“Sandyann,
We were there last week. Had an awesome time.
How you been?”

“Songbird,
I have been great. Very busy this summer taining for the big Rainier trip. I leave for that in two days. I will be gone for two weeks.

The other day, I determined that six Saturday's in a row were spent sleeping in a sleeping bag on the ground somewhere other than my home!

How was Yosemite?”

“Nice page, hodge! Hey, I'm coming up to Vancouver to do some hiking. You're not invited! :-P Hah! j/k....

Actually, we are coming up there next month to hang with our friends in Deep Cove - I will email you so we can hook up for a BBQ or something....”

“Yea hodge, really nice page and pictures of "the clique". LOL

Looks like this was an awesome trip and everyone had to have enjoyed themselves.

We are taking my niece and nephew up half dome later in the year after labor day. This will make the 3rd trip up that dome in the past 4 years for me.

Come on...more pics and reports please.



”

“Paige, we had a great camp spot above the Merced River just off the trail that goes away from LYV at the 'T' at Enchanted Valley. It meant backtracking maybe 1/4-1/2 mile. We didn't take the JMT between Cathedral and LYV. We went cross country to Echo Lake, then picked up the unnamed trail to the east. I thought it was prettier than the JMT, but it may be that I just prefer what I'm seeing to what I saw before.

At Upper Cathedral Lake, people saw a great camp site above the lake near the ridge between the two lakes.”

“Hi Bowlderman. Your such a brat. He He!”

“Hah! I think I'll go hiking near Tahoe, songbyrd, and you're not invited!! :-P


Heh heh, actually, I'm trying to go backpacking somewhere 7/29-30 - any ideas???”

“CO?”

“10,000 comedians out of work, and we get stuck with Roam Around....”

“thanks, i'll be here all week!”

“http://community.webshots.com/photo/552305762/2634284510045059180oltjKw

I can't figure out how to post a pic but the link above should show you my Nevada Falls pic in B&W. Not that mine even compares to Windwalkers but I thought it was pretty cool anyway. I'll shut up now so you can look. ;-)”

“B M, I might be able to day hike in the Tahoe area that weekend (Sat). There's so many places to go. How about Lake Aloha via Echo or The Velmas via Eagle or Dicks Lake or Twin and Island Lakes via Wrights.
I need to find a good cache to drop off a Geocoin soon. any of those are nice.”

“Theresa, your picture has to be uploaded to a host site like photobucket.com then you copy the Img tags from photobucket and paste them here, really easy once you open a free acount at photobucket.

Here's your pic.
”

“Thanks Paige. I used to be a member of Photobucket. I'll check on that.”

“Love the 360 degree pano Hodge!”

“Hey Songb, Those are some ideas I had, too. I'll email you in a day or so and maybe we can connect somehow....”

“Sounds good B M.

W W, I enjoyed your pics. Where's the rest. ;-) Are you holding out on us?”

“Thanks Songbyrd, It's not me that's holding out....it's the other 17 that haven't posted their pics yet ;)”

“testing....
”

“Hey, I did it. Thanks Paige”

“songbyrd, don't look down. That was a fun climb. It will be next week before I get my pics up. I will be gone bping this weekend”

“Lucky you. I'm taking a day hike in the Sierra. I'll do a little Geocaching while there.
Enjoy”

“just a little day hike in the Sierra's. You make it sound like that is a bad thing

have fun!!!”

“Whew! What a week getting back to normal. Mentally I am still in Yosemite on top of Half Dome. My pics are mostly up, but lacking many captions. I had over 400 pics and winnowed that down to less than half. I still have my son's pics to blend in. You can see the pics now at:

http://community.webshots.com/album/552316587IplRpo

http://community.webshots.com/album/552342753tSCdcF

We had a great trip! I picked up Jerbear at Orange County Airport (a.k.a. John Wayne Airport and Santa Ana Airport) and he stayed with us before and after the hike. JerBear is a unique and a free spirit which made for some extra fun along the way. We also let Mozark, his wife, Mather, and daughter, gnome, from Arkansas stay with us. Mather flew home on Saturday. Mozark and gnome had rented a car and caravaned to Yosemite with us. My son, David, went along also.

Saturday - We met up with everyone in Yosemite Valley at a backpacker's campground on Saturday. We were lucky to discover this campground because everything else was full. Altogether, 20 people gathered for our trip. We had two groups of 10 and spread ourselves out over the trail and at camps to minimize the impact on the environment and observe the wishes of the rangers.

Sunday we took a tour bus up to Toulumne Meadows to start our hike. That was nice because the tour guide/driver gave an interesting history of Yosemite and information about the natural wonders. The bus took about 2 hours to get there so it helped pass the time. At Toulumne Meadows we had our last "store bought breakfast" and then took a short shuttle to the trailhead. It was 3.5 miles uphill to our camping destinations: Cathedral Lakes. Half the group camped at the lower lake and half at the upper lake. Both were beautiful spots because of the lakes and the nearby peaks. We had a hail/sleet storm for a while which was pretty. Lightning hit very close to our group at the upper lake. When we picked our camp we assessed it as fairly safe from lightning so the close strike got our attention. The wetness and humidity resulted in a lot of condensation in our tents. The weather did make for some beautiful skies later on.

Monday was a layover day with most people picking a peak to climb or some other day-hike destination. A fair amount of sunbathing took place as well next to the pools at the upper lake. I took off for a day hike with wannabp and landscaper to explore the trail ahead. We were concerned because our plan was to leave the John Muir Trail at Cathedral Pass for the next few days starting with a cross country leg about 2.5 miles down a drainage past Echo Lake. We explored for a few hours and really enjoyed ourselves. We hiked around some large meadows and into some woods that were pretty and easy to navigate. We satisfied ourselves that the route for Tuesday was not going to be too difficult.

Tuesday we hiked cross country past Echo Lake and hooked up with another trail. We hiked 10 miles total, mostly downhill, to Echo Valley next to the Merced River. We had two campsites there as well. David and I were at the upper camp (Camp 1) with naviguesser, Rockman, Windwalker, songbyrd, and turbo on a rock ledge with shade, water, and great views. The lower camp (Camp 2) was next to the Merced River with awesome sites and scenery as well. That night om cooked a chocolate cake for songbyrd's birthday. While it was cooking we had a gathering around the campfire. It became aptly dubbed by landscaper as "Jerbear's Sideshow". Jerbear used both a carefully selected stick and a glow stick as makeshift microphones for his rendition of The Prairie Home Companion. I must admit I did a lot of laughing and was not the only one. The cake turned out delicious, except that om never got to taste her own cake!! Seems like Jerbear took the last bite without knowing om had not tasted it yet. I think he is still in hot water over that one.

Wednesday we hiked along the Merced River for 7 miles to Little Yosemite Valley. What a beautiful hike along the river with many stops for pics and pans! The Merced River was very full because of the heavy snowfall and strong snowmelt. We saw lots of small waterfalls and cascades along the way. The campground at Little Yosemite Valley turned out to be very nice. We were able to keep our group together since the campground was so large and divided up into many nice tent spots. We stayed there for two nights. The Merced River was 300 ft away with a nice beach for laying out and for those brave enough to swim. I dunked myself one time to get some of the trail dust off and really felt good after I got warmed back up! We had a community fire ring both nights and had fun meeting other hikers. One Boy Scout troop from So Cal seemed pretty nice.

Thursday was the big day for hiking Half Dome. It was 4.2 miles one-way from our camp. We left around 7 a.m. Some people were up and on the top in under 3 hours. jvz had to leave us early to get back home for work. He had already hiked Half Dome several times, so he was not disappointed about that.

David and I took our time and it was great. We also met some nice people on the way up and on the top. After carefully negotiating the steps up "Quarter Dome", we tackled the famous cable section with no trouble. It was not that hard. When we got to the top we took pictures, ate lunch, and explored. What a rush to stand on top of Half Dome. I met a young woman who was also a Purdue Boilermaker. We took pictures together. We also made friends with some girls from UC Santa Barbara. After lunch we hiked down and enjoyed talking with friends the whole way back. We had another campfire that night. The Ranger stationed at Little Yosemite Valley Campground was very visible and friendly. She strolled through camps a lot to make sure people were "bear proof".

Friday morning we packed up and hiked out via the "Mist Trail." The trail is steep with lots of steps and goes past Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls. As you descend next to Vernal Falls, the mist of the waterfall covers the trail and everyone on it for a few hundred feet of the downhill section. The moss and rainbows are very pretty. When we got off the trail we were at the East end of Yosemite Valley near a place called Happy Isle. The snack shack there had an ice cream sandwich with my name on it! We then walked about a half mile to our cars where we cleaned up a bit and changed. Then we drove over Yosemite Village for lunch at the grill. A hamburger and onion rings never tasted so good!

After lunch we drove up to Glacier Point so we could see where we had been. We could see Cathedral Peak near where we camped the first night and the winding Little Yosemite Valley as well. Of course, you are looking directly at Half Dome when on Glacier Point!! Lots of waterfalls visible as well. After Glacier Point we drove to our hotel in El Portal.

After showers and such we met for dinner in the restaurant. It was a great dinner with good food and great people to be with. We celebrated songbyrd and my birthdays again!!! After dinner we went across the street to a small park by the Merced River and reminisced about the trip and the fun we had. About 11:30 we broke up that party and some went to play pool at the lounge in the lodge.

Saturday morning, the southbound carloads of people stopped at the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias for a tour of the big trees. Some of us took the tram tour which was 75 minutes long and was well worth it. We got to see the largest living thing in the world: The Grizzly Giant tree. It was very interesting.

After leaving Yosemite we drove home with a stop at In-&-Out burger for lunch. Then, when we got home we decided to have dinner together before everyone flew home. We went to Ruby's in Long Beach for a great farewell dinner with naviguesser, trekkngirl, guitgirl, ewker, jerbear and our families.

Sunday was my birthday. I took Jerbear to the airport at 6 a.m., went to church, and then out to lunch with the family. The rest of the day I spent unpacking and trying to come to grips with reality.

Overall a great time with lots of memories.”

“Phil, Nice report. You pretty much nailed the whole trip.

BTW Eugene is back home in Tenn. He will be going on a trip this weekend with me. Pics will be taken of him under a waterfall (assuming it is still flowing)”

“One of my better pics:

Tresidder Peak relected in Upper Cathedral Lake
”

“I have that same pic...lol”

“Me too!

Oh, no, never mind. I wasn't on that trip for some reason....



;-)”

“We missed you Bowlderman.”

“Bowlderman??? was he on last yrs trip...no wait that was MartyB”

“Really enjoying all of these photos. It feels like I never even left California.... the fact that it's 100 degree here today might have something to do with that
;-)”

“Hodgeman - We sent the heat up to you so you wouldn't forget! Glad to help!”

“Great report and photos Phil!”

“Ditto what WW said. I've looked through two days of my photos. I plan to finish before Sunday night.”

“Finally got a chance to start having a look at a few of my shots





”

“Hodgeman - nice!”

“I think I see some photos that are going to make the DVD!”

“Hello everyone!

Let me start by saying it was great being out there and meeting you all. I had a lot of fun - I'll have a bunch of memories from my first major trip thanks to you guys.

Great pictures, y'all! I love the one of the squirrel and the rainbow, Windy.

I just got back from orchestra camp, and I'm really happy to be home. It's been a while. You'll laugh, but I actually took the bear canister with me. I needed to keep one of my friends out of my snacks...Last year she ate as much of my food as I did. It was probably a good thing I went to camp right after this trip, too, since the elevator broke in the girls' dorm, so I had to take the stairs. To the top floor - there were eight. Lucky me.

It was awesome hiking with you guys. There was plenty to entertain. Other than the scenery, I mean. I appreciate you all for having me and for not viewing me as the little kid someone pulled along. Made it even more fun.
last edited: 7/22/06 7:52:50 PM”

“"little kid someone pulled along"
Yeah Right! We saw you drag your daddy up Half Dome. LOL!

It was a pleasure to meet, hike and hang out with you Gnome and Mozark!”

“Nice pix Hodge!”

“I didn't see no KIDS on the hike!

M'Lady your presents was a positive and you're welcome to join any trips I plan in the future.”

“Haha. That's why it was fun.”

“Well thank you, Navi. That'll be great.”

“Phil & David I love
this photo/caption!!!”

“Gnome, we didn't treat you like a kid because you didn't act like one. It was our pleasure to have you along. That's funny about the elevator breaking. I bet everyone else suffered.”