So continuing on this thing a bit when I had reached Tuolumne my original plan was to layover there but I decided not to yet still knew I would need rest sometime in the next section so once again brought 9 days of food for a 10 day section which I had not been looking forward to. Luckily for me the good food the day before had filled me with energy and made the trek easy. I had been torn on the Echo Lake idea as it was cross country and I had no worries at all about getting to the lake but what I did not want to do was back track to the trail so I planned a cross country route out of Echo Lake to the South and back to the trail but what worried me was having 8 days of food on my back and going cross country through forest when I had no idea of what the terrain was like and when I entered the Cathedral Lakes Trail Head and saw the sign "Sunrise Camp 7.8" I was sold on skipping it since it would mean an easy day of hiking, I would have a bathroom in the back country and it would get me onto Clouds Rest early to enjoy the whole day up there.
Clouds Rest was a bit comical when I got up there at about 12:30pm and talked to all the day hiking tourists and they would call me crazy for saying
"I am sleeping right there!" next to the cliff. =P
I had Considered doing star trail photos up there but sadly I was too lazy to do anything other than a
simple shot like last year.
Dropping down to Little Yosemite Valley I was surprised to see a doe with two newborns as I did not know that a mammal such as a Deer could have more than one baby at a time, lesson learned!
Everything to Red Peak Pass was a standard slog but wow! Read Peak Pass had
beautiful views all the way up with that beautiful quality of
red rock . My only trouble was in the fact that most of the trail was still covered in snow and I was post holing up to thigh deep in snow but over all it did not prove too difficult, this also would be the only pass of the whole trip where snow was any problem at all.
Near the top I had talked to a group of hikers and they had told me how nice Lower Ottoway Lake was and told me about a trail crew that was base camped there so I decided to change my plans a bit and stop there and it seemed the best option for a layover day.
At
Lower Ottoway I went looking for the trail crew camp and found it, I really wanted to talk to them since I have been doing so much trail work and I had only been talking to a couple of their members for a couple minutes when the chef walked up and offered me a pork chop! It's like ok! can't say no to that in the back country lol and after talking to them for awhile the chef invited me for dinner and then breakfast also which was perfect considering I was short a day of food anyway and he was such a good cook with all kinds of great food! The whole crew were tons of fun and made me decide to try and get one of those jobs next season.
Leaving the area was mostly a viewless slog as you cross the speed bump that is Merced Pass and stay in the trees almost all the way to the top of Fernandez Pass but two miles before the pass I see something moving and noticed a bear running away from me and then stops, looks at me for 2 seconds and runs off, typical wild bear I thought but it also marked one of the only times I had ever seen a bear in the "backcountry" and would be the only bear I saw until reaching Lodgepole.
Reaching the top beautiful views of Ritter, Banner, the Minarets and Fish Valley opened up before me and I felt as if in a dream as I moved down the switch backs surrounded by wild flowers and
grand vistas .
Leaving Rutherford Lake yet again was a slog through the forest with endless Shooting Star to keep morale up but the trail itself was very poor and I lost it a number of times. At one point I just had to scratch my head as the trail goes straight into a tarn and resumes on the other side despite the fact an easy and proper route around the tarn could be built.
Climbing Post Peak Pass offered typical nice views but nothing all that great until I reached the top... oh my!!! once again yet way better than Fernandez
Ritter, Banner and the Minarets show themselves being much closer this time. The trail then drops down along the ridge and the vista becomes much larger and just when you think it can't get any better you come to the edge of the ridge and all of
Yosemite comes into view also! It is nearly a 360 peak view and is without a doubt the most beautiful pass I have ever been on! The winds were gusting perhaps 70MPH at times and I felt nothing but giddy up there, singing, dancing, skipping down the trail. Just floating through a dream!
Moving on my planned route was to Harriet Lake but I decided against it when I learned more about the proper route and that it would be further with it already getting late.
But the next day everything went wrong and it's funny how things happen when they do, giddy like a child the day before and now the weakest day of my life on trail! I woke up at 4am with a mild case of diarrhea and hitting the trail it took all my energy from me to the point where I was ready to collapse on the trail, I had to take one step at a time saying "I can do this, I can do this" and come about noon the last of my TP ran out! "oh great that is just awesome!" lol reaching Lewis creek I could hardly go on and began looking for a camp but no luck so on I pushed getting more pissed off as the trail began climbing again, finally after more than a mile of agony I reach a crap camp site that was clearly illegal due to how close it was to the trail and offered little flat spots for my tent but literally unable to push on I set up camp and before I knew it the diarrhea was creeping up on me for the first time with no TP so I said to hell with the wilderness regulations, I got to do what I got to do and I went down to the creek and went near by and stripped down, got into the creek with soap, yes WITH SOAP!! and cleaned up! which proved pure agony in this extremely cold water!
Doing laundry and placing it out on rocks I close this horrible day! Waking up in the morning I find some of my clothes chewed up from the Mice, "little f&^$ing bastards" I thought, they chewed up my 100 dollar shirt the worst! and also my diarrhea was not fully gone and I had to make use of socks this time. Resuming the trail I did ok but generally did not feel that good so I decided when I got to Tuolumne Meadows I would take the bus into Mammoth and get a hotel room so I could rest up for the rest of the trip since after all I had already done the section between Tuolumne and Reds Meadow.
So reaching Mammoth late since the bus leaves Tuolumne at 7PM the driver dropped me off at the motel 6 since I told him that is where I was headed but to my dismay they had no vacancy! What!? Damn! Who does?? so they sent me to the Sierra Nevada Lodge but they wanted a credit card for a 75 dollar deposit and all I had was my prepaid card and I only had 30 dollars on it and they would not take cash for a deposit so I was like f%^k! I hate society! but luckily a Rite Aid was down the street and they had free internet in the lobby so off I went once again to get a money pack then back up to the PC but blah! the internet was so slow what takes me 2 minutes at home took 30 minutes! and people are pouring in getting rooms and I couldn't help but think what if this place fills up while I mess with this bullshit? But finally I got it sorted out and got my room.
Two days of rest and good food and I was ready to hit the trail once again.
