Solo Backpack — Part Three

In the previous post, I wrote about water rising around me in the night. After breakfast the next day, I waded off my little island barefoot.  Then I continued up the valley after putting my boots back on. The Merced dwindles to a large creek at this point and at first, the slope going up was still moderate.

I was soon lulled into a phantasy of cruising along without much effort. But the trail veered away to climb up to a higher bench on the mountain. I was soon convinced it was time for a snack.

I propped my pack against a big rock and chose a few items. I had enjoyed dry salami for breakfast, so I sliced some of that too. It was hard to choke down as a snack. Oh well. I would just have to live with my mistake (related in Part One) for the rest of the hike. A couple of Marcia’s killer chocolate chip cookies helped kill the taste, though.

After two or three hours of hiking, I could see the big bowl that I would need to climb out of.  The next campground was on the other side or the brim. To my dismay, the bowl was covered with snow all the way up.  I should have known it would be, this early in the season. The bowl is north-facing and gets little or no sun. Lesson three… That’s one a day so far. 🙂

When I got to the foot of the snowfield I took off my pack and tried going up it. The snow was soft, and of course, I had no snowshoes. My boots sunk in a foot or more as I went along. It would be hard to climb to the brim, even if I had a whole day and no pack to carry. I was also concerned about triggering an avalanche. I didn’t know much them then, but now I know there was no danger. (I did make it up to Mt. Clark and down over that brim a few years later.)

There was plenty of time left in the day to go further so I got out my big Yosemite map. There was a good view to the north, but it didn’t look interesting out there and there were no campgrounds. There was a campground to the west that I would have time to reach, but it was over a pass that was probably snowed in too.

I decided to break the camping rules again and camp right where I was. (A few years later the Park Service realized camping at random would be less harmful.) After setting up my tent, I realized there was a dead tree leaning over the spot I picked. I don’t know how I missed that. I just had a tube tent, so it was easy to move.

After studying the map some more, I decided to backtrack and then go east the next day. It looked as if there was a nice hike down Lafferty Creek to Tuolumne Meadows. Then it would be a long hike down a long, south-facing slope back to Nevada Falls. And there were well-placed campgrounds along the way.

I started back down the trail in the morning. It was a letdown, but the scenery was entirely different going the other way. And thinking about the adventure of my new loop soon changed my outlook. I was eager to see what was over the mountain