8/27, Saturday. Drove out shortly ~7:05am. Eventless, other than CB made many bio breaks. Lunched on my bread, avocados, cheese and marinated mushroom.
Gas price in CA is very high. I bought a bag of mandarine and 2 English cucumbers, and the agriculture inspector at CA border waved them through.
We settled for the day at Chris Flat Campground, between Hwy-395 and West Walker River. About 620 miles. It was in lower 90s during the day, and the temperature just started to cool down, now we were in the shade, and about 7pm.
This USFS campground has drinking water spigots. Clean vault toilets. $24 (cash only, discount for certain pass holders). ~6600'. We checked out Bootleg Campground ~1 mile north on the west side of the highway. Not a single site was taken there. This surprised me for a Saturday. I was worried about everything full at this late hour.
Dined on my leftover cheese and mushroom, cucumber I bought on the way, and banana and mandarine.
CB bought himself a salad and a lunch crudite tray for the next day.
Starry but cold night.
8/28, Sunday. Alarm at 6, chilly. The neighbor's dog snooped around my tent (I didn't like it). C got out at 6:30am complaining of a headache due to not sleeping well. He went back to bed. I ate breakfast, and then read. Finally, after hot breakfast and coffee, he recovered. We started driving at ~9:10.
First stop, Travertine hotspring off Bridgeport, CA. It's quite pretty.
A clear sign indicates the direction. A little over 1 mile of not-very-good gravel road. A vault toilet, a picnic table next to a small pool right by the parking lot. Walked in, found ~5 people soaking in 4 small connected pools. An old guy with a dog chatting with everyone. He told us that there're 2 more pools further down the dirt track, so we walked on. Found a a nice looking twin pools (unoccupied). A bit of walk west, found 1 guy in another pool. Quite scenic.
He vacated the pool to let us taking a photo.
View of the distance mountains is also quite nice.
We made a short stop at Mono Basin Scenic Area Visitor Center.
Nice looking building with a long terrace overlooking Mono Lake. Late morning lights are very hazy.
Proper bathrooms with running water, but both drinking fountains out of order (by the look of it, they hadn't worked for awhile).
I like the underwater camera feed where you can see the brine shrimp and alkaline fly moving about.
Large parking lot without shade.
I have been to Yosemite 4 times, but never on Tioga Road. In fact, in 2006, when dad and I drove here, Tioga Road was still closed due to snow.
CB had never been to Yosemite.
So we decided to drive to Tioga Pass (~9900'), and do a small hike nearby, for acclimatization.
This summer, Yosemit has insticated a timed entrance ticket (obtainable online 3+ days in advance) between 6am-4pm.
Without advanced ticket, we couldn't drive into the park.
The view on Tioga Road (hwy-120) is quite nice.
We chose Dana Lake, in "Glacier Canyon" marked on Gaia Map, but not on any other maps, neither in reality.
TH at Tioga Lake Outlook, no sign. Clear trail going down to Tioga Lake's west end, and continues into the woods.
Met one family of 3 coming out from Dana Plateau. They liked it.
We couldn't find the trail junction, so cross-country trying to follow the track on Gaia Map.
In fact, there is, a faint track, but branches off Dana Plateau trail 200' higher than on the map (~10600'), which we took on our way out.
Quite some rock hopping on steep-ish slopes. Good to checkout each other's comfort level with scrambling.
There are a few ponds along the way.
The end is Dana Lake, under Mount Dana. It's quite large, and pretty, but stark, still had some snow left.
Had lunch. Sun was too hot.
On the way out, we found a trek, and followed it.
Back to the car. 4pm. Time to drive into the national park. No one at the gate.
We drove to Tuolumne Meadown. It's very large, and quite pretty. Some day, maybe I'll come back and do some hiking.
The road now goes down and more trees. So we turned back.
Took the last spot at Junction Campground. $21. no drinking water. Picnic table, bear bins. Went to Lee Vining Creek to wash up. Our neighbor informed us that a bear came to our campsite the previous day. Well, fortunately the bear didn't pay us a return visit. All camping on Tioga Road requires food in bear proofed containers. Each site has a metal box for food. We washed the picnic table after use, as well as the cooler. The night was not as cold as I expected. From here, there's a short trail to the ghost town Bennettville.
An easy day. Even though the temperature was maybe only 70F, hiking in the sun is hot. We both carried umbrellas. Another starry night.
8/29, Monday. 44°F when we left in the morning ~8am.
Drove to Bishop (over an hour). The mountains to our west (right) is getting more rugged.
Stopped at the wilderness center, and it was closed.
At the town, found a gas station that has wifi. Gas here is $5.69-5.89/gl, ~$1 more than in Reno. I was able to adjust one item on my proposed itinerary. No cell service.
8/29-30: Sabrina Lake overnight 8/30-9/6: Lamarck Lake - South Lake loop9/6, Labor Day. Got a ride from a nice middle-aged couple who live in Vegas area (Mount Charleston). They were to come back here in 2 weeks to hike North-South Lake loop with a few friends. The husband, a Kiwi, just climbed Thunderbolt Peak (14003') yesterday. He said it was tough. They drove a Prius. So I have to leave my hiking pole behind (fixed length).
CB's car battery was dead (as he predicted). He had prepared an extra battery to charge. Changed, picked up food in the bear vault. Drove out before 9am. Only made stops for bathroom and gas. Northen California and southern Oregon were hazy with smoke. All along, very hot, above 90°F almost the entire way. We stopped at Grant Pass, OR for the night, because he didn't trust me to drive his car. It was still early for me to wash some clothes and they dried quickly in the heat. AC in full blast.
9/7, Tuesday. Back at CB's house by 11am. Picked up a small bag I left there (my laptop and keys). He drove me to downtown.
I went to visit M.V., and had lunch with her. She has weakened significantly since I saw her 2 years ago. Almost completely deaf. Made me sad.
Bought sone misc things. Stayed in the AC-ed office before catching my bus at 6:30pm. Glued my umbrella again.
Summary:
- See my last year's trip summary (end of this blog post). Beautiful, lots of rocks and lakes, dark sky with brilliant stars. However, again, not sure if I want to go to Sierras again: too hot and dry. My nose bled 4 times.
- My favorite of this trip is Evolution Lake, Darwin Lakes, Lower and east Dusy Lakes.
- Going on a short hike before a long loop to sleep at a high altitude is a good idea.
- I took Acetazolamide for expected sections above 12000'.
- My 30°F quilt worked out very well, much lighter than the 20F sleeping bag I used last year.
- I need to portion my food better.
- This loop and Sabrina Lake Basin is accessible from Bishop via https://www.estransit.com/routes-schedule/community-routes/bishop-creek-shuttle/ ($20 one-way for non-resident).
Chamber of Commerce 8:02am 4:02pm South Lake 8:45am 4:45pm Lake Sabrina 9:10am 5:10pm Bishop 9:45am 5:45pm
