1/8-12, company gathering in our main office in SF Bay Area. Thursday was a scavenger hunt in downtown San Jose. Quite fun.
1/12, Friday. Left work at lunch time (half of my PDX co-workers were gone already). Picked up a car, and drove to Yosemite Valley. On the way I bought some avocado, oranges and apples from the road-side stands (they are rather stores with advertisement miles ahead).
First tourist stop is
Romero Overlook Visitor Center with a commanding view of
San Luis Reservoir.
San Luis Reservoir is one of the nation's largest offstream reservoirs. It stores water diverted from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for later deliveries to the Silicon Valley, San Joaquin Valley, the Central Coast, and Southern California. According to the lady at the front desk, the water level is higher than normal. She said the water came from Shasta from the north. The state operates 4 campgrounds and more day use areas in
San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area. However, it was very foggy today, couldn't see much. A landmark plaque commemorate June 21 1805 Lieutenant Gabriel Moraga, on his first journey into San Joaquin Valley traversed this Pacheco Pass and recorded it. A small band of white pelican hung out on the little rock in front of the center. Spring will be a better time to come here.
My 2nd tourist stop is at
San Luis NWR. It's in the middle of farmlands. On the way in, I saw some Sandhill Cranes.
Took some brochure from the visitor center and drove on the two "auto-tour" routes. The
Tule Elk Auto Tour Route is 5 miles, fenced. I saw 2 female groups up close, and some males with big antlers. Also saw a coyote, a big eagle on a tree top.
The Waterfowl Auto Tour Route is 8.5 miles. It loops through seasonal wetlands - now full of water. It's the winter ground for many migrating birds. But around 3-4pm when I was there, not too many birds. Maybe they left to feed. Forgot to bring binoculars.
3rd stop is at
Hilmar Cheese visitor center. I didn't like this visitor center, nor had I heard of it before coming here. It's really a store and cafe. Only has 3 cheeses to taste, and glass window of the model, rather than actual working space. A few tourists. This closes at 7pm, makes a good bathroom break.
As the night set, it became very foggy for long stretches. Cleared up once into the mountains. Finally arrived at Half Dome Village at 8pm. Checked in. Went to my tent, and ate. There're 4 beds (1 double, 3 single), each with 2 wool blankets and 1 white sheet. A shelf with a safe that cannot close, 1 chair. I made the double bed with 2 sheets and 3 blankets. The bathroom is heated, and has good hot water. I boiled some water from the faucet to drink for the night. Washed all my fruits, and wrapped them. Put food in the large storage bin outside of my door. Sat in bed read about Half Dome trail. Downloaded 2 GPS tracks from Peakbagger. Set the alarm to 6am. It was getting late.
1/13, Saturday. Woke up cold in the middle of the night. Took my sleeping bag out, and slept inside it under the blankets. But I couldn't get my feet warm. Around 3am, felt nauseous. Went to the bathroom, didn't threw up. All night, I had trouble sleeping. Turned off my alarm clock, abandoned my climbing plan for tomorrow.
Got up ~8:30. Had a yogurt, some bread, a banana. Headed out to
Misty Trail. From Half-Dome Village, I couldn't find signs that point to the trailhead. The valley wall is deep enough that no sunshine, so cannot determine my direction. Using the map on my phone, I was able to walk to the trailhead, yes, on paved road. Way too many paved paths here. Quite a lot of hikers today, a beautiful sunny day.
The first mile to Vernal Falls Bridge is paved. From the bridge, the view of the falls isn't good. The slope after the bridge increases, now many rock steps. Narrow views. Vernal Falls is very pretty up close. However, I was feeling very sick, cold sweat. I had to stop frequently. I thought I needed electrolyte, so at an apple, and then some smoke sausage. But my stomach wasn't happy. When I got to the top of the waterfalls, I threw up everything. Felt better afterwards. A lot of people got to the railing where the water falls. But if you walk a bit upstream, its big and flat, and you can probably wade and cool down in summer. If you hop over some rocks to get to the middle of the Merced River, you can see Nevada Falls. Quite a tame bunch of walkers/hikers today, many in jeans. I was the first one who went to the middle of the river. I wanted to wash the splash of my own vomit. After seeing me sitting there, a couple of Indians followed suite.
Continue on the granite steps. View is a bit more open, and some sun shining through, but still restricted due to the narrow valley. Not far, you could see Nevada Falls very well. I found a baldy area next to the trail, and decided to take a nap under the sun. My backpack makes a good pillow, and the bread makes a good cushion for my back, since it's all granite.
On the way back, I took JMT. You can see Vernal Falls from above. Very nice. It actually gains quite a bit of elevation. The view is the best along this short and high stretch. Once it rejoins Misty Trail, it's dark.
At the trailhead, the water spigot didn't work. I waited for the free shuttle now. It was very crowded. The shuttle makes many stops, so quite slow. But it can stop closer to trailhead, and stores, than you can park at. I got off for the visitor center, got a park map, inquired about
Cook's Meadow for sunset, as it's not marked on the map. I filled my water bottle, and walked to the meadow. There were walk ways, but no signs where the paths leading to. The only signs I saw on these paths are warnings of not tramp vegetation. There's a boardwalk on Cook's Meadow. Good view of Half Dome, and Yosemite Falls.
Afterwards, I walked to a cafe called Degnan's Kitchen, hoping to find some salt for my drinking water. Bought a cup of hot soup, hanging out in the dining area. At 6pm, the cleaning crew kicked me out. But seems another part of the building was still open. I went to wait for the shuttle to take me back to Half Dome Village.
I cooked up a bottle of water to put in my sleeping bag. Moved to a single bed, as the double mattress is terrible. Sat in bed and planning for my return drive tomorrow. After consulting the map and brochures that I took from San Juis NWR, I realized that I should have visited Merced Friday at sunset. There should be thousands of snow geese wintering there.
1/14, Sunday. Overcast. After a good night sleep, I felt much better, except for a heavy head. Taking it easy today, not eating fat or meat. Walked to the Lower Falls of
Yosemite Falls. Very pretty. Again, fit for wheelchair. I did hop over the railing and scrambled on to the rocks for a better view. Again, a small group of Indians here.
Drove to Ahwahnee, remembering good view there from my last trip. In this morning's light, the view from the meadow was not the best. Driving out of the park, stop at the view of Bridalveil Falls. It's like the Tunnel View on the south drive, very pretty, a quintessential Yosemite Valley photo. As I drove by the entrance gate, a long line was forming by the incoming vehicles. It was 11am.
Merced NWR is managed in the same
San Luis National Wildlife Refuge Complex. I didn't see the thousands of snow geese wintering here, only a few. Too late? Wrong time of the day? It's a smaller site, with one auto tour route. Lots of water.
Arrived at the car rental office ~3:30pm. Called Lyft to SJC airport for my 4:45 flight home.
1/28, Sunday. Warm (60°F in the city). 9 of us met up at 8am. Drove in 2 cars to Barlow Pass, snowshoed south along PCT for ~1 mile, and then off trail up to Ghost Ridge to west (right). Had lunch on the top (there's a big cairn). Relatively clear of trees on the top, could see Hood quite well. Even though sun shined faintly through in the afternoon, still too many clouds to see far. It has been warm this year, so not much snow accumulated on the tree branches, and whatever was there was melting fast, so it felt like a bit of rain walking among trees.
I very much enjoyed the short off-trail section. The boulder field under the snow looked very pretty. Needles sparkled with tear drops (photo by Claudio - host of today's hike).
